CATASTROPHIC

When Napalm signs the occasional brutal band, they don't tend to mess around, BELPHEGOR (now on Nuclear Blast),HURTLOCKER and now CATASTROPHIC being the cases in point. Most recall that CATASTROPHIC was formed by Trevor Peres (OBITUARY) and Keith Devito (PYREXIA) when the latter was filling for John Tardy on vocals. The product of said collaboration was "The Cleansing" album in 2001. Fast forward several years, and after a revamped lineup, the "Born into Bondage" EP was released in Germany's Bruchstein Records, one that I've yet to hear. Now that you're up to date, I can tell you that CATASTROPHIC is back with their second full-length album (without Peres who was busy with that "other" band) in "Pathology of Murder" and the waves of rage continue unabated.

The assessment of the aforementioned new full-length is a rather simple one. If you enjoy hardcore-tinged NYDM crossed with the Floridian strain of brutal death, as I do, then you will find nothing disappointing about "Pathology of Murder". It is a style that bands like PYREXIA and INTERNAL BLEEDING deliver with all the subtlety of a claw hammer attack. Incidentally, both Devito and drummer Rob Maresca come from PYREXIA and guitarist Brian Hobbie comes from INTERNAL BLEEDING, so the reference points are hardly surprising. Devito's vocals sound at times like those of John Tardy crossed with elements of a rabid New York hardcore bark. Combined with an absolutely earth shattering rhythm section (and a raw, natural drum sound that has Maresca hitting the skins like a man possessed),sandpaper riffs, and a generally frantic and jolting delivery, there is much with which to snap one's neck from excessive head banging.

The topics are violent, the music is violent, and the songs get right to the point and douse the listener with buckets of vicious attitude. It's nothing new and some of the death metal purists will decry the cross breeding (deathcore is an accurate description though),but those with a hankering for a beat down will enjoy "Pathology of Murder".