Catalyst - A Different Painting for a New World (2022)

Hailing from France, today we have a very engaging and technically proficient outfit with Catalyst and their sophomore full-length release “A Different Painting for a New World”. With a very catchy and crafty Tech/Prog Death Metal sound, reminding us of a mixture of Scar Symmetry, Persefone, and Into Eternity, this band delivers nearly one hour of neck-snapping music that will immediately please any fan of the genre.

After building momentum with the opener, the band wastes no time to unleash their riffing onslaught with the pummeling “To Unleash Thy Heinous Fate”, a track that is both blistering and crafty. The band’s style is very well balanced as they expertly mix harsh grows and tempo changes with virtuosity as we can hear in pieces like “The Last Warning”, “Worms and Locusts”, and “Arise of the Anathema”. This last track is one of our favorites thanks to how dynamic and explosive it is.

Never straying from their roots, songs like “Paragon of Devastation” have a hefty dosage of traditional Death Metal elements. Other songs like “Behold Thy Purification” fully embrace the more Proggy side of things, with some hard to get used to clean vocals that after a few spins start to click nicely. Our favorite track in this release has to be the vicious album title track and its sinister guitar work, perfectly blending retro vibes with the band’s more technically proficient side.

As a whole, “A Different Painting for a New World” is a masterful release showcasing a very talented band with great songwriting skills. Like we mentioned before, some of the clean vocals are tricky to adjust to, but the rest, from the crafty instrumentation to the deep growls and constant tempo changes is top notch. We are quite blown away by the quality and dynamism of the band’s sound and will be keeping an eye out for them in the future.

Label: Non Serviam Records

Release: October 14th, 2022

Genre: Technical/Progressive Death Metal

Country: France