[rwp-review id=”0″]
Well ladies and gentlemen the great music just keeps coming out of Melbourne this year. I’m not sure how many times this year I’ve had to type out the line ‘add this band to your watch list’ or ‘this band is going to be big’ but I can tell you it has been a lot of times. Not because I have limited vocabulary mind you but just because there are so many damn fine bands presenting themselves this year. Well now add another band to that list – Katana Cartel.
Sometimes it takes a few listens to really get into an album that certainly isn’t the case with Katana Cartel’s War Part 1 EP. No just one listen to this beast and I already bloody love it… in fact I can’t get enough of it.
There’s irony in the fact that I chose to listen to the EP on the day that Metallica drop their new album because you could easily mistake any of the tracks off War Part 1 as a track that has been recorded by Metallica… yes Katana Cartel are that bloody good. It opens with Raiden a track that brilliantly showcases not only Steve ‘Fluffy’ Falkingham’s gruff vocals (seriously peeps his one of the damn finest vocalists in Australia… get around him) but also presents the screaming guitars of Rob Georgievski and Aidan Le Gassick that seem to take up a life of their own through your speakers.
That is followed up by Pay My Dues that sees the band take a stronger metal feel while War is made up of lyrics that make a strong point has a faster pace and more brutal sound that makes me fall in love with the album even me. Antagoniser explodes with a flurry of drums and the track is made even more special by Falkingham’s drawling vocals and the band shows real maturity with a great mix up of pace half way through. The final track on the EP, The Dragon’s Door, sees Katana Cartel blend their rock and metal sounds together amazingly well and the track is again lifted by the smooth, brilliant sounding instrumental side of the band.
It really does feel that no reviewer could do justice to just how good Katana Cartel are. War Part 1 reveals a band that is one day going to be playing to packed stadiums and this is a band that every Aussie music fan needs to know about now.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kA4BVx-onAw]
