Slaughtery: Path-(t)o-Logic (2011)

Review

The bassist of Slaughtery provided me with a review copy of their debut full-length, Path-(t)o-Logic, which was self-released this past May.

Belgium isn't exactly known for their metal scene. It's not that they don't have their fair share of bands--it's just that very few of them seem to be well-known. It doesn't help that the country does not have a distinct sound of its own, unlike the well-established scenes of their Dutch death metal, French black metal, or German thrash metal neighbors.

In the tradition of their Benelux hybrid culture, Slaughtery sound a lot like a couple of German technical death metal bands: Specifically, they sound like Necrophagist with some Obscura thrown in for good measure. That is not a bad thing. I'm a huge fan of Necrophagist, and Obscura can tear through some amazing death metal as well.


The Belgians are not quite as technical as either of those two bands, but they're certainly no slouches. They've also thrown in some of their own twists, like the grind tendencies in "Mirror" or the Psyopus-style leads in "Sherbÿokhan". (Even if you hate Psyopus, putting that wankery into an actual song is pretty awesome.) The songs are more memorable than your typical tech-death fare, and the production is cut with surgical steel.



The Verdict: Slaughtery shred some very good tech-death on Path-(t)o-Logic. If that's your thing, it won't disappoint you. I give it 3.5 out of 5 stars.