RSS Feed


CATHARTIC
Through The Abysmal Gates Of Subconscious

Awakening (2022)
Rating: 7.5/10

Awakening Records have put out some solid stuff recently and this Mexican bunch is no exception. Erick Beltrán (vocals and guitar), Jimmy Beltrán (guitar), Jimmy Figueroa (bass) and Damián Silva (drums) have wrapped this feisty death metal treat up in a suitably gloomy piece of Dan Seagrave artwork, and the music encased within dregs the depths of the 90s Scandinavian scene successfully even though I didn’t expect such designs.

Dismember, God Macabre and the likes spring to mind from the off as the gnashing blades of ‘Beyond Grief’ come spitting fire and rolling like well-foamed serpent coils. Vocally, Beltrán is aggressive but familiar in his phlegm-coated growls and that guitar tone just reeks of the more melodious strains of Dismember. However, there does often appear to be more beneath those initially formulaic waves of discontent, but one does feel that the quartet is more than happy to dwell in such murky territory.

I love the bass sound which provides extra fuzzy flavour, and the melodious flashes really do bring further flashes of melancholy, and when married to the vocals and pulverising percussion – particularly on a track such as ‘In The Pits Of Anguish’ – one really does begin to enjoy the accessibility yet ravenous structures this nine-track affair offers.

The last time I heard similar pleasures was from a band called Xorcist who could be forgiven for their mimicry as they are in fact Swedish, but like Cathartic they seem to have found an extra ingredient in their brand.

The hammering drums in sync with the guitar tone really do give this album more flair than your routine Swedish outing. The likes of ‘Hateful Faith’ and ‘From The Unknown’ still brim with that chainsaw tone, but maybe it’s just that South American magic that comes to the fore once it has been injected.

The speed of this record remains just as important as those gloomy mid-tempo tones. I just love the dense, doomy trudge of ‘Gloomy Ways To Decay’ coupled with its bursts of aggression, and the same could also be said for the clattering mayhem of ‘Path To Perdition’, so what you’re getting is Swedish death metal worship with something foul lurking within and which oh so often extends its tentacles to toy with the sound so as to never keep it stable or too familiar.

I’m not very welcoming when it comes to the constant worship of the Swedish death metal scene because we can never again come close to such delights, but Cathartic has delivered a boisterous and belligerent album of structures we’re all accustomed too and yet here I am praising its depths.

Neil Arnold

<< Back to Album & EP Reviews



Related Posts via Categories
Share