When The Catalyst made a stop in D.C. over the summer, Mass Movement of the Moth's drummer perfectly described the band: "Welcome to Headbanging 101 with your instructor's, The Catalyst." The Catalyst then proceeded to break necks, and more than likely got drunk doing it. Rewind a few hours before, a front porch full of D.C. straight edge vegan punks, all staring in disbelief as a small amount of Richmond ascends onto the house, bringing cigarettes and brown paper bags containing malt liquor bottles that didn't stand a chance of not being consumed within the next thirty seconds. "Oh no, who's that?" someone muttered under their breath. "Don't worry, it's just The Catalyst," somebody else remarked. Two hours later, faces were ripped off.
Not to make The Catalyst out to be a bunch of devil loving, pot smoking, alcohol guzzling shredders, but they kind of are, and it's hard to imagine them minding the title. The Catalyst first made their mark on a split with longtime tourmates Mass Movement of the Moth, and their potential was immediately seen. Featuring a dual drumming assault team, The Catalyst blasted through their songs, playing a mix of thrash and metal and still getting compared to bands like Nirvana and Karp. On the beautifully designed Marianas Trench, The Catalyst have expanded their songs and their sound, and the results are obliterating.
On the album's first track, "This Bike is a Gravity Bong" - contender for best song title of 2007, the band's double drumming attacks the senses within the first few seconds, with sludge combining with sheer power. It's already quite apparent how improved The Catalyst is from previous recordings, and once the vocals kick in, all pretenses are lost. Vocals are on the verge of full blown yells but still hold considerable power over the booming bass and drums, until guttural yells comparable to Ocean take over, making a sound resembling Hiroshima being flattened by the atomic bomb.
As the album goes on, the breadth of The Catalyst continues to make itself apparent. Instead of relying on short bursts of power before ending a song like on previous efforts, they stretch it out for five or six minutes, with varying sound structures to boot. The sludge and grime are still there and present, but so is the effectiveness of the dual drummers, and basslines being drawn out into oblivion. In "Proceed With Caution," an all-instrumental song, psychedelic melody takes the driver seat, as the band teases with the idea of impending doom and destruction, but never pushes the little red button.
While Marianas Trench is only four songs long, The Catalyst has proven their talents. No longer striking a match and letting it quickly burn like in previous efforts, this album is full blown arson. Blood and guts, charred smoking bodies, with the hope of the fire being put out only to have the band throw more gasoline onto the flame, lighting their cigarettes with the fiery remains of your record player.
