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Album Review – Pathogenic / Crowned in Corpses (2025)

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This American Progressive/Technical Death Metal outfit makes their triumphant return to the battlefield with eight tracks of devastating power and haunting warnings of the darkness that lies ahead.

Boston, Massachusetts-based Progressive/Technical Death Metal outfit Pathogenic makes a triumphant return with the release of Crowned in Corpses, a brutal and immersive display of prog and tech death. This marks their first full-length release in over half a decade, promising a bold evolution of their signature brand while retaining the intensity that has defined the band for years. Produced and engineered by Pathogenic, Raymond Marte, and Anthony Lopardo, recorded at Westfall Recording Studio and at Chris Gardino’s Crispy Crackers Audio Emporium, and mixed and mastered by Raymond Marte, the newborn beast by vocalist Jake Burns, guitarists Chris Gardino and Justin Lich, bassist Dan Leahy and drummer Tyler Montaquila is a ferocious musical declaration, offering the listener eight tracks of devastating power and haunting warnings of the darkness that lies ahead.

Just hit play and an avalanche of technical and visceral sounds will hit you hard in Mass Grave Memory, with Chris and Justin showing all their dexterity armed with their stringed axes, followed by The New Rot, a lecture in modern-day Technical Death Metal with enhanced brutality thanks to the venomous drums by Tyler. Then the riffage by the band’s guitar duo revs up their Death Metal engine in Dead But Not At Rest, again offering a high dosage of violence flowing from Jake’s roars, and it’s time to slam into the circle pit to the demolishing Exiled from the Abyss, a beyond metallic, in-your-face, ruthless creation by the quintet, with the thunderous bass by Dan bringing sheer groove to the overall result.

Fragments showcases a more cadenced, atmospheric and sinister side of the band, not as visceral and exciting as the other songs, though, while back to a much more infuriated mode the quintet will hammer our putrid bodies with the title-track Crowned in Corpses, where Jake roars like a beast accompanied by the massive, intricate beats and fills by Tyler. Chris and Justin’s riffs, supported by the ruthless bass lines by Dan, will penetrate deep inside our skin in Drag Your Crosses, a first-class Technical Death Metal onrush perfect for some action inside the circle pit; and last but not least, the band will embrace us with in a Death Metal aura with eight minutes of scorching riffs, damned vociferations and crushing drums in Silicon Regime, properly ending such a great comeback by Pathogenic.

Bringing to our avid ears over 42 punishing minutes, the album offers us all labyrinthine riffs, relentless rhythms, and chilling visions of a decaying world, showcasing a sound that is ferocious, intricate, and unapologetically heavy. Hence, in order to show Pathogeinc how much you missed their sonic savagery, go give them a shout on Facebook and on Instagram, subscribe to their YouTube channel, stream their wicked music on Spotify, and purchase Crowned in Corpses from their own BandCamp page, from Skepsis Records, or by clicking HERE, welcoming the band back to the scene while also beautifully crowning them in corpses.

Best moments of the album: The New Rot, Exiled from the Abyss and Drag Your Crosses.

Worst moments of the album: Fragments.

Released in 2025 Skepsis Records

Track listing
1. Mass Grave Memory 4:30
2. The New Rot 5:32
3. Dead But Not At Rest 4:58
4. Exiled from the Abyss 4:28
5. Fragments 7:14
6. Crowned in Corpses 3:37
7. Drag Your Crosses 4:12
8. Silicon Regime 8:08

Band members
Jake Burns – vocals
Chris Gardino – guitar
Justin Lich – guitar
Dan Leahy – bass
Tyler Montaquila – drums

Album Review – Unflesh / Savior (2018)

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A dark, aggressive and extremely technical opus of Blackened and Melodic Death Metal by a four-headed American beast, sounding as pulverizing as extreme music can be.

Forged in 2014 in the fires of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in the United States as a solo project of vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Ryan Beevers (Solium Fatalis), who’s by the way a student at the highly prestigious Berklee College Of Music, but currently located in Boston, Massachusetts, Blackened Melodic Death Metal four-piece squad Unflesh has been on a roll since their inception, having already released an excellent EP in 2016 titled Transcendence to Eternal Obscurity (which featured the astounding German drummer Hannes Grossmann as a session musician), followed by their new and insanely heavy and entertaining album Savior. Featuring a beautiful and menacing artwork by Brazilian artist Junki Sakuraba, Savior will strongly appeal to fans of the unparalleled music by bands such as Dissection, Necrophagist, Emperor, Fleshgod Apocalypse and Dimmu Borgir, among others, placing the band comprised of the aforementioned Ryan Beevers on vocals and guitar,  Chris Gardino (Pathogenic, Wolfsmyth) on the guitar, Peter De Reyna (Seven Spires) on bass and Chris Dovas (Seven Spires) on drums as one of the most promising names of the current underground scene.

Ryan Beevers himself had a few words to say regarding Savior, giving more details on the direction he wanted to follow with his brainchild.  “I’ve always thought of the band as having a kind of mixed sound of 90’s black metal and more technical death metal bands. Since the band started I just called us “Extreme Metal” because it’s a broader label. I never thought the sound of the band would be described as just black metal or death metal. When the first EP “Transcendence to Eternal Obscurity” came out, most people seemed to identify the sound as technical death metal. This album is one more step forward in molding the sound of Unflesh, musically and lyrically the ‘Savior’ album is a lot darker and more aggressive than our previous EP,” said Ryan about his new opus, one that he definitely should be proud of, and one we should all thank him for providing to us, avid metalheads.

An eerie piano intro grows in intensity until progressiveness and sheer devastation invade our senses in the opening track Savior, thanks to the fulminating riffs by Ryan and Chris Gardino as well as the bestial drumming by Chris Dovas. In other words, it’s a dense and intricate depiction of modern-day Progressive and Melodic Death Metal, and a fantastic welcome card by the entire band. Following such breathtaking beginning we have Bestowal of Decay, bringing an avalanche of groove and complexity, being even more demonic than the opening tune with Ryan sounding hellish and demented on vocals, all complemented by some sick guitar solos and some ass-kicking, classic Death Metal lyrics (“The great fade of all life in the dawn / A blissful perception of the fathomless darkness obtained / Primeval scriptures deciphered before the mortal eyes / By forsaken powers of Unanimation / Unveiled”); and their destructive but very harmonious onrush of Black and Death Metal goes on in Final Writhe, an incendiary tune led by the mesmerizing riffs and solos by both Ryan and Chris Gardino, with Chris Dovas showing no mercy for his drum set while Peter brings density and darkness to the music with his unstoppable punches.

More rhythmic and presenting what’s perhaps the most intricate and thrilling beats of the entire album, always supported by Peter’s thunderous bass, Erosive Devotees presents an enraged Ryan growling and screaming nonstop, turning it into one of the top moments of the album, whereas in The Eradication Commenced the band fires more of their electrifying Blackened and Melodic Death Metal with no sign of slowing down at all. Quite the contrary, the band’s stringed trio is on fire from start to finish, slashing our ears beautifully while Chris Dovas adds hints of Doom and Black Metal to his beats and fills. And Caliginous is an even more progressive and melodic tune by Unflesh, with Ryan gnarling in perfect sync with the guitar lines and beats blasted by the rest of the band. Put differently, you can break your neck headbanging or simply close your eyes and enjoy the complex music waves of this multi-layered extravaganza. Either way, you’re going to have an awesome time.

Then a pulverizing display of dexterity and rage waits for us in Desecration of Light, a circle pit-catalyst with all ingredients we love in contemporary Extreme Metal where Chris Dovas will crush your skull with his demonic beats, while Ryan and Chris Gardino have an exciting guitar duel with their wicked riffs and solos, before a superb guitar solo introduces us to another scorching hot voyage through the realms of violence and progressiveness in Disintegration God, ending with another gorgeous guitar solo until everything fades into ethereal sounds, with its classic lyrics being the icing on the cake (“And the somber thrives as animation subsides / When all designed under a star descends into infinity / Predestined fall, all-encompassing fade of life / It corrodes away before the throne of Death / And into its sacred lore”).

In order to let Unflesh penetrate deep inside your mortal flesh with the top-tier metal music found in Savior, simply pay them a visit at their Facebook page and YouTube channel, and buy your copy of the album form their own BandCamp page or webstore, as well as from iTunes, Amazon and CD Baby. The monstrous beast known as Unflesh is more menacing, violent and cohesive than ever, and I’m sure not only the band’s talented originator is happy with the devastating potential of his infernal spawn, but also anyone else who loves the perfect fusion of aggressiveness, feeling and technique in extreme music.

Best moments of the album: Bestowal of Decay, Erosive Devotees and Desecration of Light.

Worst moments of the album: None.

Released in 2018 Independent

Track listing
1. Savior 5:04
2. Bestowal of Decay 5:23
3. Final Writhe 5:13
4. Erosive Devotees 5:22
5. The Eradication Commenced 5:13
6. Caliginous 5:17
7. Desecration of Light 4:26
8. Disintegration God 5:35

Band members
Ryan Beevers – vocals, guitars
Chris Gardino – guitars
Peter De Reyna – bass
Chris Dovas – drums

Guest musician
Anthony Lusk-Simone – additional orchestral elements