Cataract - Cataract Review
Posted by Dan Haggerty on 06.29.2008
The famous Swiss hardcore pack is back with their fifth album. What do they offer the metal masses in 2008?
Cataract is a Swiss hardcore band that has evolved into metalcore/thrash. The group formed in 1998 and released their first demo in 1999. They worked their way up through indie labels until scoring a deal with Metal Blade in 2004, for the release of With Triumph Comes Loss. This is their third release with Metal Blade, and fifth full length album overall. While this album is self-titled (like their original demo), it does have a proper full name: Cataract (all you hippies better start to face reality). The band has slowly evolved from its early hardcore punk/metal roots, leading to the question of what does Cataract bring to the table in 2008?
Track Listing
1. The Separation Of Life And Time - 04:40
2. Blackest Hour - 06:41
3. Snake Skin - 04:12
4. Choke Down - 04:31
5. Deathwish - 05:06
6. Burn At The Stake - 04:37
7. Tonight We Dine In Hell - 03:24
8. Breeze Of The Kings - 04:25
9. Doomed Steps - 03:59
10. In Ashes - 04:54
There is a version of this album that include a CD of bonus material:
1. Vocal test (Integrity cover) (1:15)
2. World peace (Cro-Mags cover) (2:11)
3. Postmortem (Slayer cover) (3:44)
4. Redneck stomp (Obituary cover) (2:30)
5. Fucking hostile (Pantera cover) (2:53)
6. Smell the bacon (Madball cover) (0:42)
7. Friend or foe (Agnostic Front cover) (1:41)
8. As one (Warzone cover) (2:17)
9. Refuse / resist (Sepultura cover) (2:58)
10. Blitzkrieg bop (Ramones cover) (2:24)
11. Kickstart my heart (Mötley Crüe cover) (4:52)
Total Play Time: 27:27
The Review
Cataract is, if anything, consistent. They have a sound and stick with it, evolving it slowly. Plenty of aggression, anger, and hardcore music to fill the blood vessels, the band providing enough venom to get you through a bad day with out the shot o’ gin; sort of like Red Bull set to anger management. The band is the logical evolution from hardcore into metalcore, the modern imprint of metal and hardcore, but what really stands out is the flourishes of thrash and death metal, and a stellar production.
While the band still works their ‘core picture, it’s the timely thrash riff or brushes with death metal that really give this album the legs to kick some ass. The band is spot on in these performances, and delivers some great passages. Drummer Ricky Dürst shines on the opening of “Blackest Hour”, as does the axe work I might add. Other great examples are the twin lead heavy riff work in “Snake Skin” that reminds of the best extreme 80’s bands; the solo/ending of “Deathwish” is great; “Beeze of Kings” also dishes out some nice solo work while the almost “doomy” chugging riff work afterwards commands thy head to bang. Really cool stuff.
The production is stellar. Crisp, clear music that not only allows the vitriol being spitted out to hang charged in the air, but I can actually distinguish the guitar parts without it sounding computerized – Even when they perform in unison. A typical, modern, over produced approach would have sunk this album, but instead the hardcore feel isn’t lost and we’re richer for it. You feel the mosh pit swirling about you. Damn good job.
But where the band delivers some really cool performances, it gets kicked in the crotch by the material itself. You might have noticed that I mentioned moments within songs, like “Blackest Hour” has brilliant moments of thrash/death before things break down (no pun intended) into a hardcore formula. Metalcore, for the most part wasn’t that good when it was new, let alone now. Cataract isn’t brining anything new to the sound, or adding enough texture to enhance it. It cripples momentum, and haunts this album like the ghost of metal past. It’s not done poorly (it’s done very well actually), but the scene has thankfully moved on enough while Cataract still hunt in the same depleted terrain.
In essence what you have is Hatebreed with a respectful nod to Slayer. The parts that eye the later are damn fine. It’s when the band slips back into an almost tribute version of the former that things bog down. High energy and a solid performance still make this interesting, the band delivering pound for pound a lot of crunch, it’s just we’ve been here before; from the very same band in fact.
The 411: If you love Hatebreed, then you’ll enjoy this album. Outside of that, there isn’t enough new being added to a musical cannon that has already been done to death and marginal at that. Cataract is a solid band with great performers; they just need to get to whatever sound they are slowly moving towards.
