After Allen West, Obituary’s other guitarist has now formed his own band. When the first seconds of ‘Hate Trade’ crawl out of your speakers, you might think it is actually Obituary you’re hearing. For a moment I feared this album would sound as boring as Lowbrow, but fortunately it doesn’t; it sounds a lot more varied. This is largely due to the songwriting of the other band members, which are all from Pyrexia.
With songs like ‘Balancing the Furies’ (very hardcore-ish), ‘Lab Rats’, ‘Jesters of the Millennium’ and ‘Blood Maidens’, they have written tracks that would never appear on an Obituary album. They are also much faster than any Obituary song. The tracks Trevor has written are unmistakably Obituary songs, but where Lowbrow tracks sound like leftovers, these sound like they were meant for the next Obituary album.
Vocalist Keith DeVito also uses a low scream that sounds like a deeper version of John Tardy. In other words, Catastrophic really kicks ass and is well worth your money if you want some great, varied Death Metal. Obituary fans certainly won’t be disappointed. What more could you want?
