Cataract With Triumph Comes Loss

In the last five years, the "metalcore" genre has included an ever-increasing number of bands who bear less and less resemblance to hardcore, aside from occassional breakdowns and connections to the hardcore music community. Cataract is one of many bands whose music seems to aspire to be the opposite: hardcore with metal riffs and drumming. This is in the spirit of the "metalcore" that bands like Earth Crisis, Integrity and Unbroken pioneered over a decade ago. While their past releases have contained many musical hints of their European precursors, With Triumph Comes Loss sounds more like it was made in Connecticut than Gothenburg. Cataract recreate the styles of Hatebreed and Bury Your Dead but with a few wise choices throughout that help justify this record's existence. The most noticeable difference between Cataract's album and those of the aforementioned bands is that it is mercifully free of stupid production tricks and gimmicks. With Triumph Comes Loss is a remarkably clean metal record, free of the cheese and silliness that can often be layered into this sort of thing. The bass drum sounds like a combination of a dull thud and a death metal "click," which anchors the overall sound definitively on the metal side of things, but this couples nicely with the decidedly hardcore songwriting. The downfall to this combination is that, while they have simultaneously captured two distinct sounds, they have failed to truly capture the spirit of either. The overall lack of lyrical depth and musical inventiveness leave this disc sounding like what I suppose it is deep down: a decent metal band's attempt at writing a hardcore record. The one thing Cataract did truly capture about hardcore is its relative predictability. I listened to this once by myself and once with a friend and we were both able to predict the patterns and breakdowns upon our respective first listens. I cannot think of another situation in which the term "by the numbers" would apply more accurately to an album. Bottom Line: Cataract are a good band that I genuinely feel are giving their all and putting themselves out there. While in many cases, I appreciate a good, old-fashioned metal-edged hardcore record, I can't say I was blown away by this one. It's fun without being memorable and enjoyable without being essential. I like the direction the band seems to be taking their music, but I'm not sold on With Triumph Comes Loss yet.