Swiss tough guys (that sounds like such an oxymoron) Cataract return with the follow up to the burly With Triumph Comes Loss which saw the straight edge band forsake their melodic metalcore sound in favor of a more in your face chugging hardcore stance, and it continues competently if unimaginatively on Kingdom.

The recipe is simple; stern metallic riffs broken up by plenty of rumbling, hefty breakdowns, enhanced by Tue Madsen’s bottom end production, gruff scowls and gang vocals. It’s all pretty rudimentary, but like With Triumph Comes Loss, pretty convincing and certainly less mainstream and image guided than their US counterparts like Bury Your Dead, Terror and Hatebreed.

I’m going to keep this short as befitting such an album but starting with the menacing build and rumble of opening instrumental ‘Kingdom’s Rise’, Cataract pretty much chug and romp through 11 direct tracks of metallic, straight edge fury with little deviation or experimentation. A few piecemeal, somber melodies surface here and there (‘On This Graveyard’, ‘March With Your Battleforce’, ‘Definition of the Sacred’, ‘Unforgotten’), but otherwise the tracks are gruff, simplistic anthems of political and social rage like ‘Denial of Life’, ‘War of Cultures’, ‘Sacrificed for the Wealth’ and ‘For Their Sins’ are the standard metallic hardcore bursts.

Nothing special but certainly par for the course.

[Visit the band's website]

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