Album Review: The Cast Pattern - The Cast Pattern

Chris Hess, explaining about the Kansas quintet’s moniker, said ‘When the band was named it had no real significance. However, then we saw on C.S.I. that a cast pattern is the direction of blood on a wall after someone is shot’. Listening to what they’ve got on offer here their name fits them perfectly. They play savage, splattering hardcore and combine it with stabbing, groove-laden technical metal. ‘We like technical and chaotic bands but after awhile your brain is spending more time figuring what is going on than enjoying the sound, so we aim to have parts that you can lock into without being simple’, says Hess
.
‘Die With Your Boots On’ features scrambling guitars which jar sharply against the drum breakdowns and growling, corrosive vocal. The stick-work of Spencer Bates is exemplary with a feisty snare attack, cracking rim-shots, pummelling double-kicks and battering sequences of cymbal crashes. ‘Infant Stomper’ is a chaos of cascading venom with a middle-section of stop-start attack that takes it to another level of violence. The album ends on ‘Shut Your Homeless Mouth’ and is clearly split into two halves. ‘It’s about working a crappy day job and having to work with people who you would never socialise with otherwise‘, explains Hess. The first-half of the track features the vocal talent of The Red Chord front-man, Guy Kozowyk, with his abrasive, stylized vocal mash-up. It’s a torrent of abuse that forms a punishing opening assault. The second-half is a long sequence of melodic guitars and surprisingly simplistic drums which serves to release the music from its strict pattern of hardcore breakdowns.

It’s an impressive debut and the final track shows they have more tricks up their sleeves to follow in the future. The Cast Pattern are currently touring and I have no doubt that the mosh-pits will boil over in whichever venue they choose to leave their bloody mark across.

Also online @ Subba-Culcha = http://www.subba-cultcha.com/album-reviews/article.php?contentID=5305