Albums

Album Review: Cataract

Album: Cataract
Label: Metal Blade



Swiss metalcore band Cataract celebrate their tenth year in the business this year with a changed line-up and a new album. Tom Kuzmic and Nico Schläpfer have joined the band on guitar and bass respectively, replacing Simon Füllemann and Kay Brem. After the first couple of tracks it is hard to imagine that these guys have been going for ten years, though as the album progresses, you can hear the experience and the technical ability break through the tried and tested formula of metalcore which has perhaps become static amongst bands of a younger age.

The first track the ‘Separation Of Life And Time’ is an all-out guitar attack undoubtedly inspired by the likes of Hatebreed. The guitars sound raw and crunching yet with a groove to them, whilst vocalist Federico Carminitana bellows out on top. Amongst the thrash and breakdowns are definite hints to bands such as Slayer (particularly on ‘Breeze Of The Kings’), Pantera, and Madball. ‘Snake Skin’ is more of a slow-paced thrash assault with dueling guitars and pull-off/hammer-on riffs. The vocals on this track also go somewhat deathly. The album is on the whole fast-paced, yet it has breaks of slugging riffs, such as in the last track ‘In Ashes’.

Production, mixing, and mastering on this album was handled by Tue Madsen who has also worked on Moonspell’s ‘Night Eternal’ and Heaven Shall Burn’s ‘Iconoclast’. Madsen has tightened everything up, made the bass drums pound and the snare’s cut, as they go from hardcore breaks to death metal bursts. There is also a weird booming bass sound on ‘Burn At The Stake’ which coincidently caught my attention on Suicide Silence’s track ‘Hands of a Killer’. It certainly makes the room shake, but I have yet to decide whether it’s a good thing or not. Madsen has also perhaps engineered the bizarre ending to ‘Tonight We Dine In Hell’ - somebody tell me what that was about?

For fans of: Caliban, Hatebreed, Slayer
Band links = Cataract

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Tags: album, cd, Cataract, Metal Blade, Review, Hatebreed

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