Customer Reviews

City of Caterpillar

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I remember hearing about this band in a chat room (don't ask me how that happened) about 6 years ago as a recommendation along side Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Audio Center. Anyway, I loved Godspeed and still do so I took the invitation to look into the bands. Audio Center turned out to be an indie/emo combo that fulfilled its purpose whenever it was needed during those tumultuous teenage years. These bands have been in all of our lives - admit it. City of Caterpillar was a bit elusive though and remained on a list of bands I wanted for about 3 years until I finally broke down and ordered it. Even with the lapse of time and even now City of Caterpillar is one of very favourite albums of any genre. It perfectly combined two mild obsessions: instrumental indie rock (GYBE, Mogwai, Explosions in the Sky) and experimental hardcore (Refused, Botch, Pg. 99). Oh man did this album floor me. Even now I still love this album which is not something I can say for a lot of music that I listened to in High School (or even music I listened to last week). For some people this will never be appealing but for any one who had any interest in the before referenced bands, City of Caterpillar is the watermark. The most accessible hardcore vocals, the most incredible instrumental crescendos, lo-fi muddy recordings, all in their only full length release. Legendary in my mind.

Im amazed im the first person to review this album. Here goes anyway.

Screamo bands have the nagging habbit of breaking up way before their prime; they all do, from saetia to orchid to pg. 99, they just cant seem to stay together for more than a few albums, and sadly, City of Caterpillar was no exception.

but mourning aside; these guys rocked. They took the screaming intensity of their parent band pg. 99, and mixed it perfectly with instrumental passages ala Godspeed You Black Emperor. The result was a totally original, amazing record. And they mized the two different sides to their music amazing well, something other bands who have tried to follow in their footsteps since(see: a day in black and white), have yet to master, and these guys did it their first try. Its an unbelievable shame these guys didnt stick around longer, because the music scene would be a whole lot better with them still tearing people's faces off.

this is an amazing album, and if you're a fan of screamo, buy it now and get ready to be amazed. If you're not a fan of screamo, but dig the whole post-rock vibe, id still check it out, because they do some amazing things to mix the two.

surviving members of the band went on to join Malady, but the magic just wasnt there(they already broke up anyway).

This is an excellent album. I never liked pg. 99, so I was a little turned off when I always heard the two bands mentioned together. This one is different. Lot's of interesting, "clean" build" ups, and drums that seamlessly transition from calm to frantic. The vocals are pretty caustic, and do wear on me a bit, but other than that I have no complaints. Plus most people who would be checking this album out would be fans of that kind of "singing," so it's not neccessarily a flaw.

On a side note, I wish people didn't use the label "screamo" for describing this sound. That word makes it sound a lot worse than it actually is.