Exclusive Interview: Catalysis talk “Relicta”!

It’s often said that idle hands are the Devil’s workshop and so while others but their musical endeavours on hold until they can play shows to packed venues once again, Dundee Scotland Groove Metallers Catalysis have instead gone against the grain, defied the naysayers and dropped an EP in “Relicta” less than a year after album “Connection Lost“. Once we’d finished banging our heads to the new record we spoke to them about how it all happened…

You only released album “Connection Lost” in 2020 so what made you want to leap on the bandwagon again and write and record “Relicta” without having any shows behind the existing new material due to the whole Plague situation? “The world essentially shutting down last year was definitely what caused us to get writing again so quickly, because as you say, we couldn’t play shows to support the release. We pushed back our album launch show once and then just cancelled it because there was no scope for when gigs would be able to happen again, but we didn’t want to just sit twiddling our thumbs. We decided that getting back into writing was the best way to keep us excited about the band whilst we couldn’t do much else, and it also meant that we could come back with a bang when the world started to back to normal.”

Listening to “Relicta” there is a clear refinement of the sound that you have on “Connection Lost“. Was that a conscious decision or just something that happened naturally with the years of song writing you have as a group under your collective belts? “I think this happened naturally and we were all happy that it did. There was no preconceived idea for what we wanted this EP to be, and it just wound up being that each song worked really well with the others we already had written, and they all had the same things going for them: big riffs, big groove, and ferocity. We wound up shelving a song or two because we liked the direction this EP was going in whilst writing it, so if we had something else that suited that sound better, we used that instead”

You’ve got moments of Groove, Thrash and Death Metal and even Metalcore in the formulation of your sound; who were the influences that you had as musicians growing up? “So I think it’s fair to say that everyone in the band had their own influences which I think is a big part of what’s caused our sound to be made up of several styles, but I think the one thing we all have in common to a certain degree as an influence is bands that were part of the NWOAHM scene. Machine Head, Chimaira, Lamb of God etc. can all be heard in our sound, and I know most of the members of the band have at least had some influence from the bands and musicians in that scene, as well as our individual tastes”

We love the way you’ve incorporated the story of the nuclear disaster of Chernobyl that is “Laid To Waste” into “Relicta“. What are your main influences when it comes to lyrics? “So, I’ll try and do my best to do justice to Col here, otherwise I might get in trouble haha! On our previous releases Cols lyrics have covered a lot of world problems such as climate change, political corruption, racism, and xenophobia etc. On this EP though, Col went more down the mental health route with a lot of the songs being about dealing with one’s own demons, songs dealing with death and loss, that kind of thing”

What’s the scene like in Dundee? There is some real high quality Metal coming from North of the border at the moment with the new releases from Death Speed Thrash merchants Dominicide and Avant Garde Black Metal outfit Cyclops Cataract; does it make you feel proud to be part of a scene that has so many quality bands in it? How does that help you going forward in terms of getting on decent tours and playing bigger shows? “Absolutely, there’s no denying that the bar is constantly being raised for the quality of metal music in Scotland. Dundee itself doesn’t have too many metal bands these days, but the bands that are here are all active, and there being more bands in other cities provides great opportunities for networking and playing out of town shows. We love getting to play shows where we’re excited about the other local talent that we’re playing alongside, and the longer that we do this, the more often we get that”

What made you choose “A New Way To Die” as the single to get the full music video treatment for “Relicta”? The whole vibe of the location in the Tentsmuir Forest in Fife has a classic 90’s Hardcore feel to it which we absolutely love! What was it like working with Andrew at AD Zyne who produced and directed the video? “We chose ‘A New Way to Die’ to be the first single from the EP because we all felt that it was the most reflective of what the EP has on offer. It has lots of groove, it has big riffs, it’s got fast thrashy sections and it’s got melody as well so it kind of showcases what to expect from the next five songs that the listener is going to hear. It was great working with Andrew, we actually worked with him for our first music video for the song ‘Nothing Left’, but I certainly feel like he was in his element with the story element of the video and everything that the location of the shoot provided to him, so it was a pleasure to work with him again and we got something that we were really happy with as well, so it’s a win-win”

What’s next for Catalysis? “Actually getting to play some shows! Haha! We’ve just enjoyed a hometown show for the launch of our EP, and we’ve got a few shows coming up in the likes of Glasgow and Edinburgh, so we’re just trying to get ourselves booked on as many shows as we can so that we can keep the hype going. Inevitably, we’ll wind up writing something else soon enough too”