Cathartic Demise "In Absence" <REVIEW>

April 9, 2021 Tom McKay

“…while the album length might scare off some people, those who are willing to hunker down … will enjoy an amazing album with lots of twists and turns…”

Don’t be fooled by the menacing tone of that cloaked reaper looking guy. Underneath the stern and callous nature, he’s a cute little shit who likes to make cat memes in his spare time because they’re TOO CUTE! Anyways, Cathartic Demise is a progressive thrash metal band from Kitchener, Ontario. They’ve been around for a healthy 4 or so years and have become a very prominent band in the Kitchener metal scene in that time. In fact, I’ve heard some of their stuff thanks to my friend Collin Sterling of Thrashers Paradise during a collab I did with him on his channel. It was around the same time we looked at the circus/asylum themed video where we got to have some fun and talk about “Captain Jack Joker”, which is still my favourite part of the video. But now, my experience has come full circle with Cathartic Demise releasing a full length album today (April 9) called In Absence. When I did the collab with Collin, my thoughts on this band were along the lines of “This reminds me a lot of Trivium”, who is one of my favourite groups, so it’s by no means said lightly.

However that was with a different album, specifically the band’s 2019 self-titled EP. But how does that bode for In Absence? Is it still the same sound I remember, or have they changed? And if so, how does it sound? Well, let’s not waste much more time, and let’s get straight into it.

We start off the album with a very foreboding, melancholic clean guitar riff in “With Lust”, which is setting us up for when the full band comes in. And once the distorted guitars start echoing that riff (but with more power and more ferociousness), you begin to realize that this is an album that reminds you so much of that metalcore/thrash style that Trivium coined for themselves in the past. However, something seems very different about this particular song. I can’t put my finger on it, but it might have something to do with the reliance on harmonized leads in the distorted section. Seems like an Iron Maiden trick more than a Trivium one. But the guitarists of Cathartic Demise (Bennett Smith and Taylor Wroblewski) have such a way with the melody that you get swept up in it so quickly. And once we get into “For Power”, all chains are cut, and the beast is off its leash. The riff, while obviously being derived from the thrash style is clearly infused with so much colourful melody that it’s damn near impossible to understate how catchy a riff that can kill you can truly be. We also get a moment to show off the rest of the band here as well. Aaron Tanner’s bass is in full force and is not pushed to the back like so many other bands tend to do nowadays. Plus Angus Pike on the drums is annihilating his kit like it’s an old boss he still has a grudge on. And once Bennett Smith is allowed to unleash his vocals on the song, he’s a force to be reckoned with.

And it’s at this point, his voice allows him to separate the band from many other comparisons. I’ve put many bands through a sort of “blind test” to see if they can stand on their own legs, and many fail in being able to identify anything unique. With Cathartic Demise, however, I put on a song like “For Power” and though it might only be semi-easy to tell who they are at first, it becomes immediately clear once Smith unloads at his microphone like he’s watching an MMA fight in his living room while his parents aren’t home. That same energy continues onward into “Blade in the Dark” and “Silence Within”. This entire album so far is oopzing energy and style. While the ‘thrash style’ is very present and seems to be the main influence here, our guitar players shine bright for many reasons. Their riffs… are SO DAMN CATCHY! Riffs are supposed to be catchy to some extent, but the rule of the universe usually goes “The heavier thine song is, the less infections it becomes”. But many bands have overcome that, and from what I can tell, Cathartic Demise is capable of writing some thunderous, finger shredding riffs while still allowing them to have an impact.

Moving into “Pale Imitations” and we start (sort of) stepping out of the thrash metal bubble for a moment with some dual leads that set an impending doom kind of setting. This is where the ‘progressive’ part of their nature comes in. It’s not just the long songs that we’ve seen so far, it’s the willingness to change things up as those songs progress, and in this case: as the album progresses. I think this is the slowest (yet also not slowest) song on the album thus far. That opening riff drones onward for a while, building up the suspense, speed and intrigue before it BOOM! Unleashes into a fireball of fury! It’s here we see more of the raw talent in terms of song crafting… There’s a trick usually learned in music theory that talks about “Tension and Release”. While that usually applies to chord progressions, in this case it applies to the overall construction of the entire intro. It builds slowly while still keeping its overall intensity and refusing to be boring, before it explodes into the thrash metal style that many of us love! It’s absolutely incredible!

We see something similar in the next track “Disparity”, only this time starting off with the clean riff and not waiting so long to get started. Probably because we’ve heard that trick already, so let’s just ramp things up after only a minute and a half this time, yeah? But of course, we do see similar trends of songwriting throughout the album, it’s melodic, it’s thrashy, it’s heavy, there’s nothing inherently new going on here. But, instead of being an insufferable annoyance on the listener, nothing about this album so far is boring. It’s nothing new, but it refuses to bore you. It’s enjoyable in every sense of the word, especially when we break thrash tradition and go into a weird section about 5 minutes into “Disparity” where you can tell it’s straight ripped out of the prog hand book… get fucking weird with it! I LOVE IT!

Coming close to the end of the album, the title track “In Absence” feels more straight forward but still including those catchy riffs and pounding drums we talked about, before jumping into the pit with some absolutely chaotic, almost death metal-esque dissonance. “Waves” starts off slow but picks up pretty quickly. Side note, did you really have to call it “Waves”? I’ve already made the Trivium comparisons enough times to make me a broken record, no need to make it more apparent, aight? Actually, with this song, let’s quickly talk about Bennett Smith’s clean vocals for a moment. His cleans don’t appear often, but when they do it actually is used cleverly. During the harsher, “Speedy Gonzales“ parts of every song, he knows these clean vocals wouldn’t work as well. Which is why the screeching banshee type shit is required. But in slow parts like the first half of “Waves”, it almost feels like a Siren call… now that I think about it, that’s pretty fitting given the song title. How did I not see that when I first made that comparison!?

Anyways, we finish off with “Desire”, which starts off very isolated and somber with its harmonic cleans soaked in delay and reverb, which I feel was intentional. This doesn’t feel like a desire for the RIGHT COLOURED LAMBORGINI DAD! More like a desire to feel happy, a desire to feel free, a desire to… hope. It’s absolutely heartbreaking to listen to, and more sad than that one time you were playing ball with your dad and he ran down the street never to be seen again… he just kept runnin’, eh?… sorry, too soon? But then the song continues onward like that for half of the song. Even when the distorted instruments return… we’re still left with the feeling of desperation and lack of hope… to which the band realizes that it’s making them feel about as loved as a white crayon, so they dive right back into the thrashy heavy shit. YEAH! LET’S RECK SHIT! FUCK SOCIETY and what not.

Reaching the end of my experience with this album, I’ve taken away two things. One, the album is a true testament to the power of creativity and music, no matter what style you’re working with (be it soft clean riffs/melodies or extremely fast, visceral yet catchy thrash riffs)… but also that… this album is a huge journey. and I do mean HUGE. The album clocked in at around 57 minutes long. While it’s not quite an hour long, it’s still VERY damn close. And that might intimidate some people, and I totally get it. Even as someone who enjoys long experiences with music, I totally get the intimidation of looking at an albums run length and running away faster than a dead-beat dad running away from paying child support. But, if you’re willing to hunker down and give this album the attention it rightfully deserves, then you will NOT be disappointed.

So overall, while the album length might scare off some people, those who are willing to hunker down and truly appreciate the experience that Cathartic Demise have created with In Absence, will enjoy an amazing album with lots of twists and turns that all feel natural. This may be a thrash album first, but progressive does come a close second, which I feel makes this album the truly mesmerizing experience that it is. Do yourself a favour, and subject yourself to the cat-meme making cloaked dude for a journey you’ll never forget