The Path Towards...

Where to start with this one?

How about the ludicrously unoriginal band name? The Archives currently has 32(!) Oblivions listed, to say nothing about the much older and far superior Canadian tech-thrashers Obliveon, which is where this name should have died with a semblance of dignity. But in the year 2007, in Silicon Valley or thereabouts, these blokes eschewed the Internet entirely and decided "Oblivion" was a perfect name in a country that had produced at least four others by that time.

And maybe it was. There's much to be said about this kind of subconscious signaling, and if "generic death metal" is what you assume from the hackneyed band name, album title (obligatory points of ellipses.....indicating maturity) and song names, then hoooo boy, you're about to get it in spades!

Imagine aping the riffs of Heretic-era Morbid Angel, taking care to extract the flavorless grist and to discard anything catchy, or with personality, or a whiff of inspiration. Perform everything with the dull sense of purposelessness of, say, Pandemia, or Coercion, or some other really terrible death metal band that should have punched the time clock about two years after they started. Now pretend you're, I don't know, Decrepit Birth? Pick any quasi-intellectual "tech death" snooze. Finally imagine it is 2017, and imagine being bored by your masterwork, The Path Towards..., in 1997 instead, because I guarantee it would have happened if this thing came out note-for-note back then.

This is a really aggravating listen. It goes nowhere, the riffs are agonizingly generic, and it's delivered so sedately you wonder if these guys were forced into it. Is it because half these guys are deathcore rejects? Maybe age plays a factor too, but a lot of the recent comebacks I've enjoyed strongly suggest otherwise, so deathcore rejects it is.

It's hard to understand how Unique Leader released this except perhaps as a friendly gesture. Even their generic fare tends to at least be brutal, or extreme, or noteworthy in some regard. Oblivion, though...Oblivion is more frustrating than peeling wallpaper, and far less worthy of your time -- at least you can paint a masterwork on a blank wall. The Path Towards... just sticks you with another piece of regretful landfill. Avoid with severe prejudice, no matter how generic and inoffensive you think you like your death metal to be.