Thrash is one of those genres that will never die, but sometimes it needs a kick in the ass to wake it up back up and encourage new ideas. Play Stupid Games, Win Stupid Prizes, the first full-length from Swiss-Swedish melodic death/thrash outfit Katapult, could be one of those albums. Following a pair of EPs released in 2020, Play Stupid Games is exciting, fast and a joy to listen to.
There’s a lot of melodic death metal present in Katapult’s music but, like the thrash, everything is turned up to ten. Songs like “Nihilism for the Gods” are a blueprint for the album’s best moments, combining fist-pumping, stadium death metal with riff-after-riff thrash. “Litany of Spirals” shows off Katapult’s technical prowess and “Comfortably Dumb” will be responsible for at least one pit injury. Of the writing process, the band had this to say:
“We produced the whole album ourselves, which gave us a lot of control but it was insane how much effort and time we put into it,” Katapult tell Decibel. “It meant we had to learn loads of things and do certain things at a slow pace since we did it for the first time or just didn’t have the expertise to rush through it. So the album is a great example of teamwork and functional critique culture. No ego, all creativity. Which makes us very proud.
“The album was a process of opening up. As the two last EPs were mostly the work of [founding members] Johan [Norström, vocals] and Florian [Moritz, guitar], this one included the new band members a lot more. The original duo wrote the music but put it up for debate. The result is this punk-infested thrash fest that carries a lot more color than you might anticipate.”
Take a listen to Play Stupid Games, Win Stupid Prizes below; the album is out on November 25 via Discouraged Records.
