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Under the treads with Path To War

Heavy metal Monday to all ye perverts. I cum to you with tidings of WAR!
Path To War, to be specific. 




I had the grim honor of playing with these bright young infantry men in their native Baltimore in June, and they definitely deliver the heavy artillery in a live setting. 


No Man's Land is the newest campaign launched by these death metal maniacs, a cassette compilation of their demo material, put out by Desert WasteLands. 


With a logo reminiscent of Obituary and Dismember, and song titles like "Warhammer," "Hymn Of Chaos" and "Beneath the Treads," you can probably guess exactly what you're getting into. Path To War's musical method of attack is a crunchy, fat, down tuned homage to Bolt Thrower. The tight rhythm section is dense with rumbling double bass drums, and frosty distorted bass tones that would surely bring a grin to Jo Bench's face. The vocals are especially gruff and ring of guttural phlegm. While I wasn't able to ascertain exactly what the lyrics per the song, the point comes across clearly. This demo tape is a battle cry. A harsh tapestry painted in the same fiery strokes of 90's, mid-paced death metal masters. 


My one criticism of Path To War is that they've done such a fine job of emulating their heroes, but neglect to create a voice that is their own. Then again, maybe the point of "No Man's Land" is to prioritize brutality over originality. There's already too much pretensions, "avante gard" garbage posing as extreme metal these days, so I applaud Path To War's simplicity. They know what direction they're committed to, even if it's a well treaded path (to war). I'm eager to see how these freaks expand their sound into more innovative theaters of auditory warfare in the future. 


Production wise, this demo compilation is tight and doesn't sound overproduced. The guitar riffs are clear, the drums get the job done, and as I mentioned before, the bass tone is rich and fuzzy.


I should also note that I listened to this album while I played God Of War 2, and golly, was it a perfect pairing. Nothing like headbanging death metal hooks to accompany button-mashing beat 'em up games. Context is everything.

Bombs away, baby. 

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