Never opens the album with double kick drum beats beneath an ear-splitting riff storm with some Pantera-esque grooves. And so the mood is set: angry. Very angry. Tortured, twisted, Slayer-esque guitar dive bombs and squeals open Lost Souls, leading into a song that is ruthless in its sonic assault of lightning riffs and a pummelling breakdown. Reap the Outcasts has some fine guitar work and some of the best riffs on the album, particularly in the coda that drags the still-twitching body of the band’s enemy through the dirt. Title track Killing the Eternal is a monster of an instrumental with killer grooves and tremendous playing. Failed is like being hit in the face with a slab, repeatedly. You can see it coming but don’t want to move out of the way, leaving a look of joy on your mangled face. Pretty, I think you’d agree. The riffs in Urban Waste cut like razor wire across your palm. The sharpening knives that open Mankind’s Burden are an indication of what’s to come: a mass of psychotic volume and tension. Bliss. Hollow Steps marches in, its size 10 concrete boots pounding the albums victim into a bloody pulp.

Eight tracks in and you’d think that Cataract would let up for a minute, perhaps give us (and the Eternal) a bit of a rest, some time to get our breath perhaps. But oh no, the punishment continues with the cheerily entitled Drain Murder and Loss. The Faith you have Misused brings a healthy dose of groove to the battering with some impressive lead work in the mid-section. And at around the three minute mark begins an outro that builds from a loose riff into the chugger of chuggers! On Black Ash and Spawned by Illusions, drummer Dürst comes to the fore, delivering demonic fills and some tasty grooves. Relentless to the end, just when you thought Cataract had pulled out all the stops, closer Allegory to a Dying World shifts it up a few brutal notches and finishes the album with a fatal blow. If the Eternal that Cataract seem so intent on killing off has even the faintest whisper of a breath in its battered cadaver, it’d better keep its head down and hope they don’t notice.

There are moments when Cataract’s sound is indistinguishable from every other band within the metalcore genre. Fortunately though, those moments are few and far between and this album is a collection of killer songs, killer grooves, and killer performances.

3.5 out of 5

Stand out tracks: Killing the Eternal, Failed, and Allegory to a Dying World