UMUR "Pathways To Wholeness" is the debut and sole full-length studio album by American, 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 three other albums besides "Pathways To Wholeness" as far as I know ( I can´t find anything about the label on the internet). "Age of Elegance (1994)" by Lord Bane, "Circles & Butterflies (1993)" by The Last Things ( both progressive metal albums) and "Fathom That" (year unknown but it must have been around 93-95) by Slyboyz (I don´t know the music genre on the Slyboyz album). My point is that "Pathways To Wholeness" is a very rare release and you´ll probably have a hard time tracking it down outside Scandinavia (there´s always internet auctions of course). I actually found mine second hand by coincidence and I´m gonna hold on to that one.

The music on "Pathways To Wholeness" is technical progressive metal played by a power-trio which fortunately means that the music is rid of annoying polished keyboards. Something I think mares way too many progressive metal albums. The two most prominant influences I can think of is Fates Warning (at their most technical) and Psychotic Waltz. The music is rather challenging and I remember it took me quite a while before I was convinced of Catharsis songwriting abilities back when I got the album. Technical playing sometimes seem to be more important than compositional strength but giving the album a lot of spins will also reveal compositional depth IMO. The technical level of the musicians is very high. The rythm section is tight and actually rather funky at times while guitarist/ vocalist Scott Fox handles the vocal duties in typical high pitched progressive metal style. But I really enjoy his voice. His guitar skills are also considerable and there are some really excellent shredding solos on the album.

The sound quality is good considering that it is not a fully professional production (at least to my ears) but you don´t always need millions of dollars to produce an excellent album.

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 me "Pathways To Wholeness" is a 4 star album and I really hope more people get the chance to hear this album because it´s definitely highly recommendable to fans of the genre.