Its cool to see this Denver-based trio still at it, and with the help of cool Polish indie Selfmadegod, Catheters second album has now seen the light of day. Its been three years since their debut, but have no fear, the bands mixture of grindcore, raw crust punk and hardcore remains intact. The production is pristine this time around, showing that these guys not only have the intensity and energy needed in any great metal album, but also have the musical talent to back it up. Sure, theres the occasional dumb punk riff or mindless grind run, but its backed up by some very solid drumming (love those quick snare fills!) and when any given riff only lasts about four seconds at most, the dumb ones actually sound pretty good. Very reminiscent of Phobia, with lyrics tackling similar subjects: social and political issues mixed with the occasional ode to getting rowdy (see "Long Live the Circle Pit). Lacking in originality but kicking ass in most other departments, this is another in a batch of good grind records to come out in the final stretch of 2005.
(Selfmadegod)Catheter
Dimension 303
BY Greg PrattPublished Dec 1, 2005