I will admit to a certain level of excitement surrounding the announcement of Herr Corpsegrinder's side project. After all, I rather liked the man's work in Monstrosity (can you say "Slaves and Masters" boys and girls?) and saw him countless times on tour with Cannibal Corpse. In Paths of Possession the vocals are clearly his signature sound with some additional backing vocals here and there, but curious, George is missing something. It's got to be the music. That's it.

Brutality is at a minimum and as much as early In Flames is recalled, so, too, is 1992/1993 Testament invoked throughout. In fact, half of this album (1, 2, 4, 6, 10, & 12) is comprised of re-recorded tracks from Paths of Possession's first two, self-financed releases. Perhaps not coincidentally, these were written when Richard Brunelle (ex-Morbid Angel) was in the band, and are easily the best songs here. FYI, the instrumental "Erzsebet" plainly rips off the ~mid-section of "To Live is to Die." Listen and you will know.

The lyrical themes are anti-Christian with some gore and Erik "Busiest Man Alive" Rutan recorded/produced/mixed/engineered this CD well. Reviews recommending this to fans of Six Feet Under and Obituary are wrong. I really can't see this appealing to the seasoned Death Metal fan and certainly not to fans of Brutal DM. Even Melodic DM fans will likely shake their heads rather than bang them. Maybe the next album, should there be one, will be an improvement. In a word: promising.

written by Tony Belcher

Playing time: 48.00