The Path Towards...

WHAT?

No, no, no, you can't be serious, Oblivion.  Nick Vasallo's gotta be pulling my leg.

IT TOOK YOU FOUR YEARS TO SHIT THIS TURD OUT???

Okay, now that I've gotten that out of me, let's start the civilized discussion.

Let's go back to November 17th 2017.  Just four months ago, Oblivion released their second album under Unique Leader Records (because, unless you're Hideous Divinity or Cytotoxin, you get signed to Unique Leader so that you can destroy your career).  I'm not saying Unique Leader did this, but it seems to me that whenever a band signs to this label they go downhill.  I don't know, maybe I'm just mad because "The Path Towards..." sucks that much.

So let's start with the singles and the sheer anticipation of this album.  The singles released (tracks three, four, and five of the album) and I was excited.  Because, like any other sane technical death metal fan, I love and adore Oblivion's debut album, "Called to Rise," putting it among my top ten death metal releases of all time, if not top ten metal releases of all time.  Yeah, it's that good.  Oblivion was founded by Nick Vasallo, a.k.a. "the father of deathcore," but "Called to Rise" wasn't deathcore.  It had deathcore influences, but it actually had more classical influences.  Think of a cross between Necrophagist and Suffocation with a pinch of The Faceless' early years.  The reason behind the classical influence is as easy as to pin as the deathcore influence; Vasallo is also a known modernist composer.

So, after hearing "Called to Rise" (and inevitably purchasing it), I was very excited for their 2017 release.  So, when I heard these three singles, I thought they were okay, but definitely nothing compared to their debut.  I know it would be hard for them to come back like that, but, hey, one can dream, right?  So these singles were all at the beginning of the album - not a good sign - and they were pretty decent.  But, the little voice in the back of my mind was like "well, what if it's like their first album and it just gets better as the album goes?"  Sounds good.  I put that release date on my calendar.  November 17th rolled along and I listened to the album and, boy, was I disappointed.  Generic deathcore here, generic deathcore there, occasional technical doodly-swoop here and there, and the album got worse as it went along.  My favorite track ended up being track five, one of the singles released while the album was up for pre-order, the song was also co-written by Karl Sanders, the guitarist for Nile.

No wonder I liked it.  Sanders wrote it for Christ's sake.  But this is something else that angers me.  What is with deathcore bands and having every other track featuring a guitarist or vocalist?  There are guest vocals on tracks four (Eddie Hermida of All Shall Perish), five (Enrico "Hater" Di Lorenzo of Hideous Divinity), eight (Ben Caragol of Burial, formerly of Hacksaw to the Throat as well as Brandon Hunt of Witness the Horror), nine (Carlos Saldana formerly of Antagony [the first deathcore band also formed by Nick Vasallo] as well as Eddie Hermida, again), and ten (yet again, Eddie Hermida).  Like, every other track is co-written, so it's not even all material written by the actual band.  In other words, it took four years to shit out not only Oblivion's turd, but also a collaborative turd.  Four years to come up with nine (not including the intro or outro) tracks and they're average at best.  What.  The.  Hell.

Maybe that's not the case.  Maybe they didn't help write the songs.  Maybe the stress of remembering all these lyrics was too much for Vasallo, and he wanted others to step in.  I don't know.  But it's still weird because, for whatever reason, only deathcore bands do it.

Also, I lied about the album getting worse and worse.  It gets worse as it goes, but once it hits track seven, it hits rock bottom.  From there it may rise, but not very much.  Track seven, otherwise known as "Harsh Awakening," truly is a harsh awakening.  Basically, it's just trash.  Skip it, if not for a good laugh.  It just sort of goes along until it hits a point where it goes into this breakdown thing(?) that sounds happy and sad and angry all at once.  In other words, I don't know what they were going for here, it just sounds like a clown is at a circus, but he's very passive aggressive at the people who don't tip him but he's also crying a lot(?).

So, long story short, "The Path Towards..." is completely underwhelming.  I've listened to this album again and again (like, 20 times) and I can't find any reason to enjoy it.  Every time I try to make sense of what they are trying to do, but I always come short because it just doesn't sound good.  Compared to "Called to Rise," it's garbage.  I bet if this were my first impression of Oblivion, I might enjoy it.  But it wasn't, and I didn't.  If anything, listen to "Awaiting Autochthon," "Mechanistic Hollow," and "Holders of the Sword."  These are the only worthwhile tracks to be found here.  Otherwise listen to "Called to Rise" and have an incredible time doing so.

Overall Rating: 27%

Originally Written for themetalvoid.wordpress.com