Band: Catalepsy
Title: Bleed
Label: Bastardized Recordings
Distribution: Massacre Records
Release date: May 20th 2011
Review: CD

Catalepsy, formed in 2004, hail from Florida, and they debuted in 2007 with the Godless EP, which was (and still is) hot stuff. Like this EP, which sold out in mean time, the debut full length, 2008’s Iniquity, got released though Stillborn Records (owned by Hatebreed’s Jamey Jasta, by the way), yet recently the band signed to Germany’s Bastardized, which will release the sophomore full length.
This second studio album lasts for thirty eight minutes and was recorded with producer Matt Johnson (of The Autumn Offering-fame) by the following line-up: growler Rick Norman, guitar players Rob Walden and Matt Sutton, drummer Ben Sutton, and Sean Murphy on bass. Like we’re used to, the album’s title and the song titles are (just) one-word descriptions.
Bleed is comparable to the full length debut and the MCD/EP, yet with two important changes in approach: progressive mathematic precision made room for the most sludgy grooves this time, and the average speed isn’t constantly blasting anymore, yet the tempo changes whole the time, including lots of decelerations, much more than before. This kind of Deathcore contains modest elements from technical (US-influenced) Death Metal and raw, primitive Hardcore, making Bleed easily available for fans of the more grooving yet extreme side of Hardcore and Metal in general as well.
The USA do house lots of great Deathcore-acts (think: Whitechapel, Knights Of The Abyss, With Passion, Impending Doom and many, many more), but I am pretty sure Catalepsy are one of the most interesting ones right now.

83/100

Ivan Tibos.