ALBUM REVIEW: Catacombs – Like A Storm

Described online as ‘didgeridoo’ metal, it’s clear before you even press play on Catacombs that LIKE A STORM are not quite your average band. With a track record of producing some excellent singles that are sometimes left isolated amongst a sea of mediocrity on their albums, the challenge this time around was always going to be to craft a more complete body of work. The question is, have the managed it?

Kicking off proceedings, opener The Devil Inside is reminiscent of the cleaner side of BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE, with plenty of hooks without there ever being a moment where the band’s teeth are fully bared. Out of Control provides the first ‘woah’ moment of the record, but aside from this there are some refreshing screamed passages that, while hardly reinventing the wheel, do at least give a bit of backbone to the track.

It’s at this stage however where we have the first major problem. After just a few tracks it starts to feel as if you’ve already heard it all before; a few screams, some flashes of electronic experimentation and a good deal of decent but fairly standard clean vocals. The instrumental elements are at no stage particularly exhilarating, and the didgeridoo starts to feel shoehorned in to fill some sort of obscene quote instead of sounding like an integral part of the music.

Complicated (Stitches & Scars) and Until the Day I Die both sound like early demos of tracks that would have ended up on the BLACK VEIL BRIDES cutting room floor; the former having some extremely annoying distorted vocals floating aimlessly over the sound of chugging riffs that never really go anywhere.

Judging from their clear influences it’s pretty obvious the target market that LIKE A STORM are aiming for, and on that front they may have succeeded in crafting a perfectly passable album. The problem is that this just feels like a lesser version of their contemporaries. Catacombs lacks the aggression of ASKING ALEXANDRIA, the theatricality of IN THIS MOMENT and the fist-pumping adrenaline of BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE, leading to a listening experience that just leaves you craving, well, more.

For all its flaws though, this record does have flashes of something a bit more interesting. The Bitterness raises the pace and packs more of a punch as a result, with These Are the Bridges You Burn Down featuring some razor-sharp riffing and more of a reliance on the screamed vocals. Unfortunately the optimism caused by these few offerings is short lived, with Solitary, Hole In My Heart and Bullet In the Head all sounding flatter than a twice punctured tyre. Closing track Pure Evil clocks in at nearly seven minutes, but instead of acting as an epic, swirling opus it just extends the same formulaic structure that’s been banded around for the entire record and ends up being the biggest slog of the lot.

In short then, this album is not particularly inventive, diverse or exciting, and if you’ve never been a fan of the more radio friendly end of the likes of BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE and THREE DAYS GRACE then there’s probably nothing here for you to get excited by. That said there will be a market for this somewhere, so if you live for emotive lyrics, the odd chugging breakdown and an occasionally hook-laden chorus, then it may be worth giving this a go after all…

Rating: 4/10

Catacombs is out now on Century Media Records.

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