The Catalyst Fire does a great job of living up to the hype surrounding Dead Letter Circus, building on their unique and accessible sound — everything sounds bigger, more produced and dare I say it, supersedes their popular debut record in many ways. Strengthening what could be improved and removing what was no longer needed (not that there was much to remove in the first place). This time around the guys have experimented with space and movement. Each song breathes on its own and the album features a wide variety of aural delicacies that will grasp the attention of even the purest audiophile. You can tell a lot of thought and effort has gone into the overall sound and direction of this record which has paid off for them. Continuing on from the experimentation perspective, the DLC guys have also experimented with the use of electronics a bit more this time around. The album feels like half man, half machine with some hints of rock loving astronaut thrown in. From start to finish the album feels coherently consistent, not just in an instrumentation sense, but also a lyricism sense and the way the album has been pieced together. The art of smooth and sensible track flow on an album of this calibre is a lot harder than it appears to be to the average listener. One out of place track can disrupt and dilute a journey in an instant, once you lose the listeners attention you’ll be hard pressed to get it back so easily. Production wise The Catalyst Fire does fall into the same pitfalls that many other bands of Dead Letter Circus’s calibre fall into, but I won’t harp on that because it’s impossible in this day and age to produce an album that doesn’t tick at least a couple of boxes on the commercial production bingo card. Kim Benzie as usual sounds as dynamic and versatile as he always has. With similarities between that of Tool front-man Maynard at times, but I think arguably Benzie has demonstrated time and time again that he has a more impressive vocal range (especially when it comes to the high note stuff) than that of Maynard and other similar sounding vocalists. The instrumentation aspect is impressive in its own right, not only have the band branched out without straying too far from their core sound, but the warm tones of those guitars, the clever bass lines, fantastic drum work and the way everything meshes together is a feast for the ears. Having a good front-man is one thing, but having the band with the ability to back up those big sounding vocals is an achievement in its own right that deserves to be applauded. I could go on all day about which tracks I loved and why I loved them, but this is the kind of record you need to hear. Don’t take my word for it, listen for yourself. The Catalyst Fire is arguably the best release from Dead Letter Circus to date and after listening, you’ll realise what all of the buzz is about this talented band.
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