Description

“Swallow Your Teeth” is the debut full-length from The Catalyst. The label states that the band is “still channeling a wide range of hardcore, punk, grunge, noise rock, and sludge influences” while remaining unafraid “to show their love for Nirvana, Fugazi, Sonic Youth, The Jesus Lizard, Born Against, and most of the Amphetamine Reptile back catalog”. There. Not my words, but I happen to agree 100%. It feels like there are some slightly more tangible riffs here from time to time, carrying along a punchy kind of rocked out vibe that really kicks some ass, but fear not, as there’s still a totally frenetic energy throughout. So you can still expect loads of caustic riffing and searing feedback, intense screams/shouts, and super blown-out and textured distortion all over the place (which makes for some especially killer fuzzed-up basslines). I will say, though, that the more restrained sense of melody that opens (and lingers to a lesser degree throughout) “42012” is some of the band’s finest work to date, and works shockingly well alongside their core attack. There are a lot of bands out there that take this type of amalgamation of sounds and just turn it into a big ball of obnoxious, noisy shit, but The Catalyst really knows what the hell they’re doing. They’re somehow able to have this wild and crazy approach and a sense of humor and still mix everything up in a way that has feeling and force. Nicely done…