Catastrophic - The Cleansing
Metal Blade Records - 2001
/images/covers/Catastrophic.jpg
After Obituary's decision to disband following their last CD, Back from the Dead, Trevor Peres was not finished making extreme death metal music. His passion was still there and he wanted to continue his musical career. Trevor found that same passion in the band members of Pyrexia (Keith Devito, (vocals), Chris Basile, (guitar), Brian Hobbie, (bass), and Rob Maresca (percussions)). They soon joined forces, and Catastrophic was created, combining the death metal sound of Obituary with the New York Hardcore hardcore sound of Pyrexia. Unfortunately, what looked good on paper did not work in the studio.
First of all let me talk about Keith's singing. Ultimately, the vocals are what really make or break an album for me, and in this case, are downright annoying and tiresome. Most of the time, Keith sings in a high-pitched, slow, screaming manner. There are times where he will say just one word, and I swear it almost sounds like a dog barking. It is a shame that he does not just calm down and sing in the low-pitched voice he uses on "Lab Rats". There are also times when the music on a particular song is really cool, and then out of nowhere comes a guttural scream, totally ruining the part. If Keith could just control and tone down his voice it would make listening to The Cleansing much more enjoyable.
Musically, the majority of the songs are mid-tempo, which I found to be very irritating. (To me, death metal should be fast.) There are plenty of times where I would just think to myself, "C'mon, speed this up!!" It is extremely boring to hear almost every song at the same pace.
Nine of the twelve songs on The Cleansing are written or co-written by Trevor. Of all his songs, I found only two that (barely) held my attention: "Messiah Pacified" and "The Cleansing.". These two songs have moments where the music is fast and unrelenting, but doesn't last long enough. Frankly, I enjoyed the three songs written by Chris more than the songs by Trevor. "Lab Rats" is fast, crushing, and very creativeity - there are plenty of tempo changes to make it unique. The same is true about "Jesters of the Millennium" - its intro is the best of the entire album; it quickly grabs your attention because of how different it is.
I hope that for their next album, Catastrophic will decide to give Chris more freedom in writing, and not hand so much over to Trevor. Trevor's songs all sound the same: repetitive and boring. Maybe the band was in awe at having Trevor Peres from Obituary with them, and they decided that he should take the controls. They should have looked at Chris and his abilities instead, because Chris's songs have the ingenuity that can make this band better. Before even that will help, though, Keith will have to do something about the way he sings, because it is simply unbearable.
Some of you will probably like this album and decide that I am an idiot for this review, which is of course your right. My opinion is that there are plenty of other bands that will hold more interest to for the listener than Catastrophic.
Metal Blade Records - 2001
/images/covers/Catastrophic.jpg
After Obituary's decision to disband following their last CD, Back from the Dead, Trevor Peres was not finished making extreme death metal music. His passion was still there and he wanted to continue his musical career. Trevor found that same passion in the band members of Pyrexia (Keith Devito, (vocals), Chris Basile, (guitar), Brian Hobbie, (bass), and Rob Maresca (percussions)). They soon joined forces, and Catastrophic was created, combining the death metal sound of Obituary with the New York Hardcore hardcore sound of Pyrexia. Unfortunately, what looked good on paper did not work in the studio.
First of all let me talk about Keith's singing. Ultimately, the vocals are what really make or break an album for me, and in this case, are downright annoying and tiresome. Most of the time, Keith sings in a high-pitched, slow, screaming manner. There are times where he will say just one word, and I swear it almost sounds like a dog barking. It is a shame that he does not just calm down and sing in the low-pitched voice he uses on "Lab Rats". There are also times when the music on a particular song is really cool, and then out of nowhere comes a guttural scream, totally ruining the part. If Keith could just control and tone down his voice it would make listening to The Cleansing much more enjoyable.
Musically, the majority of the songs are mid-tempo, which I found to be very irritating. (To me, death metal should be fast.) There are plenty of times where I would just think to myself, "C'mon, speed this up!!" It is extremely boring to hear almost every song at the same pace.
Nine of the twelve songs on The Cleansing are written or co-written by Trevor. Of all his songs, I found only two that (barely) held my attention: "Messiah Pacified" and "The Cleansing.". These two songs have moments where the music is fast and unrelenting, but doesn't last long enough. Frankly, I enjoyed the three songs written by Chris more than the songs by Trevor. "Lab Rats" is fast, crushing, and very creativeity - there are plenty of tempo changes to make it unique. The same is true about "Jesters of the Millennium" - its intro is the best of the entire album; it quickly grabs your attention because of how different it is.
I hope that for their next album, Catastrophic will decide to give Chris more freedom in writing, and not hand so much over to Trevor. Trevor's songs all sound the same: repetitive and boring. Maybe the band was in awe at having Trevor Peres from Obituary with them, and they decided that he should take the controls. They should have looked at Chris and his abilities instead, because Chris's songs have the ingenuity that can make this band better. Before even that will help, though, Keith will have to do something about the way he sings, because it is simply unbearable.
Some of you will probably like this album and decide that I am an idiot for this review, which is of course your right. My opinion is that there are plenty of other bands that will hold more interest to for the listener than Catastrophic.
