Catastrophic
““The Cleansing””
(Metal Blade)
My first impression of Catastrophic was they sound incredibly like the ground breaking American Death metal Obituary, and for good reason. In the wake of line up changes, guitarist Trevor Peres, the one noted with Obituary’s distinctive slower caustic riffoligy. With the rest of his new band mates, Catastrophic is an obvious attempt to continue in the same vain as before, but with a slight updating for the changes in metal. Most notable in each song, the trademark non-palm muted power chords along with relentless double-bass. While a tried and true form of metal, its a tad bit dated, it smacks of 1989. Fortunately, The Cleansing is more then just continuation of former projects. While the tempos tend to stay firmly in the mid-paced range, some tight beat-blasts bring some of the extreme metal revolution in to the fold. The rest of the members of the band are out of New York, giving on oddly hard-core sound at moments. Mostly which comes from the drummer using some shuffle time beats in here and there. There are some albums that are of note not because of there music, but because of lame covers, and for some reason metal is notorious for this. The cover of The Cleansing is a campy computer drawn image of a city burning, complete with little bodies falling out of windows. While some fans only like the fastest, heaviest, most extreme incantations of death metal, Catastrophic proves that there are still many sides to the sub-genre.
