Album Type: Full Length
Date
Released:15/11/2017
Label: Doom Stew
Records
“A Universal Emptiness” is a nihilistic
record that is thrilling and disconcerting in equal measure. With their second release, California sextet Catapult
the Dead have emerged as brutally heavy hitters who display musical might and
audio finesse.
“A Universal Emptiness” CS//CD//DD//LP track listing:
1.
Till It Goes Away
2.
Anti-Aether
3.
Last Breath
4.
Burning Womb
The Review:
Think
about the last time you felt sheer, unabashed terror. I’m not talking about the controlled violence
of a roller coaster or rickety carnival ride, but the “holy shit I could have died” nausea that floods your organs after
you spin out across a highway doing 65 and somehow avoiding that oncoming
tractor trailer. You know that giddy joy
between nervous laughter and bursting into tears? “A
Universal Emptiness” is the soundtrack to that feeling – a nihilistic
record that is thrilling and disconcerting in equal measure. With their second release, California
Multi-instrumentalist
Garrick O’Connor opens “Till It Goes
Away” with a piano melody straight from a horror soundtrack, foreshadowing
the extreme dynamics of “A Universal
Emptiness” – at one moment the album can be quiet and nearly tranquil,
before thrusting into pure dissonance.
Vocalist Ben Hiteman shows remarkable facility from his first
lines. Though he punctuates certain
phrases with high register shrieks or even melodic, chant-like notes, Hiteman’s
delivery is usually a low-end shout that is gruff but intelligible. And that qualifier rings true with every
element of Catapult
the Dead: each layer of instrumentation is heavy but clear. For once I could believe there were three
separate guitars actively playing in each song because I could make out the
variations in tone and style. The
combined effect is classically sublime: breath taking verging on overwhelming.
“Anti-Aether”, a personal
favorite, again hinges on musical diversity, opening as a folky, dark dirge,
bordering on balladry that never drops emotional sincerity once the full band
kicks in. After frenzied tremolo picking
the tempo crawls to a standstill at the midway point before sliding into a
lurching, lumbering stomp. Patrick
Spain’s brutal, multifaceted talent behind the kit cannot be discounted
throughout “A Universal Emptiness”,
but his work here is particularly invigorating.
The mix of low end guitar crunch, Brownson’s thick bass riffs,
O’Connor’s subtle keyboard work, and the sitar-like, psychedelic guitar leads
builds towards a hypnotic closing refrain –
“Swim against the sea” – the
perfect counterpoint to the elemental, tidal power surging underneath.
“Last Breath” opens with a
double fakeout: angelic organ music that segues to lo-fi cacophony, before the
façade drops and the band launches into HD brutality. The tremolo guitar work here is particularly
noteworthy, as it recalls the pipe organ intro, but with a decaying, blackened
edge. The shifting roles and transposed
melodies shared by Dajani, Lilliston, and O’Connor belies a keenly honed
collaborative ethos that permeates the whole of the record.
It’s
remarkable that in the midst of this group onslaught, album closer “Burning Womb” is as effective a
metaphor for agonizing solitude as I’ve ever heard. Hiteman’s lone voice, still shouting but
dropped to a murmur in the mix, is less a defiant scream than an impotent cry
of rage. When the volume normalizes and
the pummeling resumes, complete with memorable, sludgy riffs and shimmering,
open chords, you can almost forget the dark melancholy that anchors the
song. As the band crescendos, the urge
to joyfully, masochistically beat your head into the concrete may be too much
for some listeners. For those that can
stomach it, treasure the scars “A
Universal Emptiness” leaves you.
“A
Universal Emptiness” is available to preorder/buy here
