The Cataclysm

The first and only taste of what could have been from this former Adelaide band. As far as demos go, this isn't too repulsive but there are many weak points which really let the songs down and make it difficult to fully appreciate. Mark of Kain (these guys seem to really love their Ks) lumbers in with a rather generic metal intro and a flat and somewhat sticky production. The snare drum is worse than the infamous St. Anger snare drum and sounds more like a dropped golf ball than any sort of percussion instrument. In case you hadn't run out of things to get past, the long overdue vocals begin in a tired, flat almost half-spoken drone. They are barely sung and do not fit the music. It is as if the vocalist had never tried to sing before in his life and they just hit record and kept the first thing the came out.

Once a tolerance has been built up to the bizarre vocal delivery and distracting sound quality, things start to improve somewhat with some decent riffing from the rhythm guitars. They are executed cleanly but are let down by the characteristically weak sounding rhythm section. The heaviest guitar sound in the world can only do so much without any support. We finally get a taste of excitement with "80 Tons of Thrashed Metal" featuring an energetic tempo and interesting riff changes. It has the potential to be a decent thrash song but it is hard to tell without any passion in the vocals . Dave Mustaine may not be much of a singer but at least he gives it some attitude when it is needed.

Things conclude with a sadly weak closing song, 'Corrosive'. Inconsistent with the rest of the demo, this song is in a three chord pop-rock style which is trying as hard as it can to sound metal, interspersing the nauseating attempts at dull melodic singing with borderline humorous attempts at metal screams in which case I can see why they kept with the understated delivery for the rest of the demo. This review may sound harsh, but even as far as obscure demos go, there are certain things that would be out of place in any recording and need to be addressed.

The demo isn't entirely without merit as the musicianship is quite competent featuring skilled double-bass drumming, impressive bass fills and enjoyable metal riffing. If you can get past the shortcomings and average songwriting, it is an enjoyable enough demo to have in the collection and shows a band that with a few improvements, would have been on their way to a great sound. Unfortunately the group seems to have disbanded since so we will never know what might have been.