PATHWAYS TO WHOLENESS

"Pathways To Wholeness" is the debut and sole full-length studio album by US, San Diego, California based progressive metal act Catharsis. The band recorded the "A Cleansing of the Mind" demo in 1993 and short lived Danish metal label Nordic Metal signed an album contract with the band which resulted in the release of "Pathways To Wholeness". The Nordic Metal label only released a few other albums by artists like Lord Bane and The Last Things before being closed. My point with mentioning that is that "Pathways To Wholeness" is a very rare release pressed in a very limited number of copies and you´ll probably have a hard time tracking it down outside Scandinavia.

The music on "Pathways To Wholeness" is technical/progressive metal played by a power-trio which means that the music is rid of polished keyboards. So this is in many ways a 1980s type progressive metal release. The two most prominant influences I can think of is Fates Warning (at their most technical) and Psychotic Waltz. The music is quite challenging and not necessarily instantly catchy. It took me quite a while before I was convinced of Catharsis songwriting abilities. Technical playing sometimes seems to be more important than compositional depth and memorability but the album certainly is a bit of a grower.

The technical playing by the musicians is on a very high level and definitely one of the album´s greatest assets. The rhythm section is tight and at times actually rather funky sounding while guitarist/vocalist Scott Fox handles the vocal duties in typical high pitched singing style. His guitar skills are also considerable and there are some really excellent shredding solos on the album.

The sound production is relatively well sounding considering that it is not a fully professional production (at least to my ears). You don´t always need millions of dollars to produce an album, where music and sound fit each other well.

I´ve had "Pathways To Wholeness" for a long time and it keeps growing on me. It´s a crying shame that Catharsis only made this album because the signs of great things to come are there in abundance. I really enjoy the wild unpolished energy in the music. Something that many other progressive metal bands could learn from. Perfection sometimes kills power. To my ears "Pathways To Wholeness" deserves a 4 star (80%) rating and I really hope more people get the chance to hear this album because it´s definitely highly recommendable to fans of unpolished and adventurous progressive metal.

Catharsis is one of the forgotten great bands from progressive metal realm who didn't get the reputation they desearve, releasing one album in 1995 named Pathways to wholness at the danish label Nordic Metal. Well, I have this album since 2002 and since then I've listen to this release no more then 4-5 times. Fiew weeks ago I decided to give a proper chance and re lisen the album couple of times before making a review. So, my impression as a whole was good, raw prog metal without keyboards, not far from techno thrash bands from late '80's like Anacrusis or Forbidden but with a good doze of progressive elements added, this elements were the bridge between bands like Catharsis, The Last Things, In the Name, etc and the rest of techno thrash bands who remain faithfull to their roots. Very powerfull album with many tempo changes, some good vocals but too cold for my taste, but good, some excellent drum chops and very solid and captivating guitar solos and riffs, this is how I can describe this album. Even is places is raw but still progressive, Catharsis never made in this scene, is strange because this is a very good album who turns to be their swansong. What more is a characteristic of this album is that the music is very dense, thay never let you to take a breath between pieces, only some tracks under 1 min change the atmosphere from rough to more acustic and vocal orientated piece. As a whole I find it a good album, very similar to my ears with american prog metal Power of omens. While I enjoy this album I can't give more then 3 stars, is good but something is missing here, I don't know really what, maybe the sound is too crisp in places, too cold. Nevertheless a hard to find album who needs a better view for sure, still pretty good band who for sure make their mark in prog metal realm. 3 stars, weaker in my opinion then other Nordic metal issue gem - The Last Things album - Butterflies and circles.