Rating: 7.9

Country: Poland

Release Date: 2006

Record Label: Self Released /Damned Pages Promotion

Track list:
1. Holocaust business
2.Lugol`s liquid
3.Ladyboy into dark room
4. Unlisted

Band Website: Patologicum

Patologicum - Promo 2006

Piotr Popiel - Voc.
Maciek Mec - 7 String
Grzegorz Palys - 7 String
Michal Rembisz - Drums

A little disappointed by the rather unappealin' ‘n' unimaginative Goregrind and tedious film-clip intros on their split release with Gruesome Malady, I hoped to find (un)comfort in this new Patologicum promo. So what've they brought to the teemin' Goregrind genre? More gore! Often, more gore can mean more fun and I think that applies here, seein' as the band have excelled themselves this time around in terms of structure, variety and atmosphere.

As with efforts that succeeded it, Patologicum have slithered yet further away from the hugely groovy, palm-muted Pornogrind heard on the tear-jerkingly underrated Hecatomb of Aberration debut. This time around, they've brought a sizeable pile o' current Broootal Death/Grind influences on board, taking the simplistic, downtuned riffery of the Gruesome Malady split and infusin' it with a lethal dose of bubbly, mosh-distilled vim! So, where previous efforts have given us quite trite ‘n' unexciting Death/Goregrind with decayin' stock-riffs, standard issue blastwork, ropey ol' vokills and a collective confusion as to which grindin' direction to take, the latest Pato material sees them finding their feet again. This trio o' tracks proffers a highly addictive shot of slamworthy goodness, fortified with lively, pit-pleasin' arrangements, enormous catchiness and slaverin' vokill slurp! The vokills themselves are certainly a boon for Pato, ‘cos they add many a gelatinous splat of colour to the work. They've moved away from the monochrome mouth-flatulence of old in order to include a multitude of both glottal and guttural sounds, which when put together come across as an unpredictable stream o' rotten consciousness, sloppily swappin' from one hideous sound to another to create a wet heap of anomalous slobber.

On the first track in particular, there's a rich stench of The Mass Rotting…The Mass Sickening, by their fellow Polish grinders, Squash Bowels, along with a delicate aroma of the Reinfection fave They Die for Nothing. On the second track, there's many chunks of something as slamulated as ol' Jungle Rot or Dehumanized, or perhaps someone a bit more recent like Stabwound, only with a much sleazier undercurrent. Said chugphoria is pleasantly interspersed with much more gorified bits that sound like equal parts Deviant-era RGTE and latter-day Dead Infection. The third track sounds like recent Fleshless bein' diced, dissected ‘n' ingested by Haemorrhage and Pathologist, because the pulsin' rhythmic filth leads into short ‘n' effective passages of liltin' melody, the guitarists harmonizing with tuneful abandon afore returnin' to judderin' Gore.

The production is highly appropriate and complements the material very well, cos it brings out the foulness of the viscera-guzzlin' vokills, gives the guitars a nice tendon tearin' bite and adds a festerin' morgue-like edge to the whole recordin'. The heavy-handed gain and grit-coated overall sound made me feel a bit uncomfortable at first, but that soon disappeared once I settled into the bubblin' gore-quag. I would've liked perhaps just a little more kit clarity, seein' as some deft lil' bits o' drumwork are almost lost amid the adipocere, but it is a Goregrind promo after all, so one shouldn't complain about this sort of thing.

So there you have it, an appetisin' splatter-starter of new ‘n' improved Patologicum, liberally laced with lots of chewy Brootal Death chunks, finished with their signature Goregrind vinaigrette. If the band plan to continue in such a style, then I for one am certainly lookin' forward to a full platter of this stuff.

August 23rd, 2007