When I first heard ‘So Far From Real’ I was desperate to turn it off. Over-produced pop-punk guff spilled out of the speakers and after a long day at work I didn’t want to listen any more. So when I came back to listen to it again I was shocked to find myself unwittingly pressing the repeat button to hear it again. Make no bones about it, this is as basic and obvious a record as you’ll find this year, but it has a strangely annoying and addictive ingredient that hooks you in.
I’d never heard of Cauterize until I received the cd. Infact I still don’t know much about them, other than they are American, described as music that “tugs on your sleeve and yells in your ear” and have toured with Evanescence. But don’t let the last bit put you off – they sound nothing like that manufactured nu-goth shower. Instead Cauterize, signed to Wind-Up Records, are great in parts but horrible in others. Playing a brand of melodic pop-punk with a spikey edge, they are equally at ease bashing out a fast skate-punk riff before going straight into some horrible harmonised vocal melody.
Opener ‘Something Beautiful’ actually has the ability to infuriate within just 10 seconds of the record starting. Opening with a massive guitar riff and a crash of the drums, the song builds up and builds and builds into…nothing. Everything stops and runs into a horrible harmonised vocal which sounds like something left on the boy-band cutting room floor. When the instruments kick in again everything improves, but for me this terrible moment ruins the entire song. ‘If You Go’ is melodic pop-punk fare and ‘My Everything’ a lot heavier in tone and lyrical content. Not fantastic, but certainly not as bad as your Simple Plans of this world.
‘Killing Me’ has a great chorus but crap verses and ‘Taste Of Tears’ is completely unoriginal but irritatingly catchy. And that’s really the story of this entire record – you should hate it but you don’t. I cannot pinpoint exactly what it is about Cauterize, but they have an x-factor which will probably break them into the mainstream, that ability to plant a melody inside your brain and watch it take control of your conscious. Things do get repetitive by mid-way, the riffs and song structures sound very similar, leaving you with a feeling that you may have heard it all before. But then the band come up with a classic moment – the chorus in ‘Ill Cry Tomorrow’ is immense, for example. Lead off single ‘Choke’ is ok but ‘Promise Me’ redeems it.
I’d definitely recommend trying before you buy. This album is annoyingly addictive and there are some good moments, but with so much competition out there it doesn’t hold up against some of their peers. Still they have that annoying x-factor that will probably break them big Stateside so it may be that Cauterize hunt you down before you check them out…
www.cauterize.com
Paul