Cataract
With Triumph Comes Loss
5.5
It’s been a prolific year for melodic metalcore. A lot of bands are putting out albums and a decent number of them have been pretty damn enjoyable. Shadows Fall, Killswitch Engage, God Forbid and Unearth proved that they are still pretty much as solid as their fans remember. While acts like Dead to Fall, Fear My Thoughts, All that Remains and Heaven Shall Burn put out albums that may have put them in the driver's seat as the new genre leaders. And then, there have been a lot of other albums. These are albums that kind of just fall through the cracks. They are decent, but they fail to do anything exemplary that sets them apart from the already crowded masses. Cataract’s, With Triumph Comes Loss is one of those albums.
So, what does it sound like? It’s all kinds of “brutal” and “unrelenting." I can just see the press release now:
Cataract's unrelenting blend of melodic hardcore will brutalize your face while delivering a 20-megaton blast to your chest with their melodic 40 grit thrash-metal assault. With Triumph Comes Loss is a malicious testament to unrelenting brutality. Buy or Die!
For what it’s worth, Cataract are at least some of those things. Are they heavy? I suppose. I’m sure if you played this at a considerable volume you would get your head shaking. Every once in a while they throw in a catchy melody, but that’s not really the point. The emphasis here seems to be on pulverizing the listener. The problem is that the songs are not dynamic enough, nor do they convey enough forethought to have the desired effect. Far too often the band fails to do anything to capture my attention and as a result their real bread and butter, the breakdowns, are in vain. Cataract does nothing from the opener "Killing Tool," to the coma inducing closer "With Triumph Comes Loss," that distinguishes the songs in between in any way. The result of that is apathy on my end. This is not all that bad of an album, but it is a boring one.
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5/23/2006