Split LP Review: Cloud Catcher & Tricoma, Royal Flush Sessions Vol. 1
Posted in Reviews on November 19th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
It was a noteworthy bummer in when Denver-based boogieblasters Cloud Catcher announced they were calling it quits. Even as they left, however, they both toured and released an EP called The Whip (discussed here), and with that offering explored some different and harder-edged textures from classic metal amidst all the frenetic shuffle carried over from their how’s-that-spelled-again 2016 sophomore LP, Trails of Kosmic Dust (review here), which came out on Totem Cat Records. The band at the time was comprised of guitarist/vocalist Rory Rummings, bassist Scott Schulman and drummer Jared Handman, and as Cloud Catcher make a return with a live-recorded split release with sludge rocking fellow Denverites Tricoma, they do so with an entirely revamped rhythm section.
Doing so leaves Rummings as the sole remaining original member of Cloud Catcher and the perceived spearhead of the band, but as Royal Flush Sessions Vol. 1 plainly demonstrates, there’s been no dip in focus on the part of the band for the year and a half they were essentially defunct. Instead, they sound as they are: refreshed. And the plot is no less thickened than the riffs, as while Rummings has brought aboard bassist Matt Ross and drummer Will Trafas, he’s also joined Tricoma — whose self-titled debut LP came out in April, because timing — on guitar. Ross and Trafas also play in Tricoma, alongside vocalist Devin Trotter, guitarist Riley Rukavina, and now Rummings. So what you have on Royal Flush Sessions Vol. 1 are two bands, Cloud Catcher and Tricoma, the first of which is three-fifths of the other.
Got all that? Take a second if you need to.
One assumes that one band playing in the next made it somewhat easier for the two acts to lug their gear to the base of Hahn’s Peak in Clark, Colorado, to record the seven-song/35-minute entirety of Royal Flush Sessions Vol. 1 live in an outdoor setting. With follow-up mixing by Ben McLeod (All Them Witches) and mastering by Mikey Allred (All Them Witches, Across Tundras, etc.), the two groups offer a respective glimpse at who they are in the raw, with Cloud Catcher dominating the runtime with 24 minutes of material, 10 of which is dedicated to the jammed-out “Beyond the Electric Sun,” and Tricoma‘s three inclusions comprising the remainder. The tipped balance does little to dull the impact of Tricoma‘s arrival, however, since once their “God and Man” begins, it’s as though the five-piece are willfully snapping the listener out of the hypnosis Cloud Catcher cast.
That moment is essential to Royal Flush Sessions Vol. 1 — when “Beyond the Electric Sun” turns into “God and Man.” Make no mistake, both bands aim for scorch and both certainly get there, but it’s how that’s done that defines the release. Cloud Catcher veer more toward the heavy rock side of their sound even while nodding at the NWOBHM on “Magician’s Chariot,” swirling echo vocals behind Rummings‘ clean verses establishing the space in which the first of the band’s many barn-burner solos will take place. Trafas and Ross are tight and dynamic as one would expect an experienced rhythm section to be on import, and though the snare sound comes through tinny, its punctuation in “Boundless Journey” still establishes the nuance of Trafas‘ playing. “Wield the Blade” is maddening in its turns as Rummings‘ riffs dare the listener to keep up, twists and turns and shred conjured in head-spinning fashion like the returning hallmark of their sound that they are.
“Beyond the Electric Sun,” prefaced with a quick bassline from Ross, is slower and groovier at the outset and the centerpiece of the tracklisting on the whole. Cloud Catcher‘s portion of the split would still be longer than Tricoma‘s without it, but the balance would of course be much closer. It is, however, not a jam to be left out. By the time it’s two and a half minutes into its run, it’s left the verses behind and embarked on the outward journey, which will take it through psychedelia and boogie alike before hitting the throttle one last time and shoving onward to its finish, bringing about the aforementioned shift as Tricoma‘s harsher, more biting sludge rock takes the fore, the first scream from Devin Trotter a piercing snap to reality such as it is.
As “God and Man” and the following two cuts, “Knife Fight” and “Worthy of Obedience” play out, Trotter‘s style of blown-out throatrippers could just as easily be sourced to black metal as the Weedeater/Bongzilla school of sludge — at a certain point, lo-fi screaming is lo-fi screaming — but the blend of that harshness with Rukavina and Rummings‘ rolling fuzz, chug on “Knife Fight” and downright playful lead work on “Worthy of Obedience” put the band squarely in a weedian aesthetic place. Stoner crust? Maybe. They wouldn’t be the first. However one might be tempted to categorize them, Tricoma‘s onslaught — though brief — is an effective step away from Cloud Catcher‘s dizzying guitar-led array, since even though the vocals are nasty, nasty nasty, the instrumental progressions behind them are fluid and more accessible.
Go figure. Two bands. Same people. One blisters fingers, one puts nodules on vocal cords. Both rip.
They may vary in terms of aesthetic, but what Cloud Catcher and Tricoma share in addition to personnel, at least as regards Royal Flush Sessions Vol. 1, is the energy inherent in recording live. The feel throughout the release is more live-in-studio than live-on-stage, but in sound and vibe it’s live just the same, and that serves as the bridge as “Beyond the Electric Sun” crosses into “God and Man.” Whatever the future might hold for either or both bands, if Cloud Catcher will continue on as-is or simply be folded into Tricoma, or splinter off, or not, or anything, rest assured I have no idea. Will there even be a Royal Flush Sessions Vol. 2? Who knows. But for a surprise return from the former and a welcome showing from the latter, the split asks remarkably little of anyone taking it on except perhaps to be bowled over, and it makes that fun in the process. Sounds like it was a good time in the making, and is accordingly a good time in the listening.
