The song's chorus falls into the previously mentioned more radio-friendly and catchier bit, but honestly it just sounds a little cheesy. But then the album's title track, "Catch Without Arms", comes on and it becomes evident that the band has stepped towards a more mainstream sound. The first two tracks, "Ode to the Sun" and "Bug Eyes" are heavy and gritty and yet simultaneously beautiful, very reminiscent of classic dredg. The album does feature a handful of tracks that very much resemble classic dredg, even if they sound a little more like stepping-stone pieces in song structure rather than being b-sides from the Leitmotif days. That's not to say that the band has entirely lost its way, however. It's almost as if the rest of the band members are simply there to provide a backdrop for the vocals this time around as opposed to the band's previous efforts where the vocals fit in as simply another instrument. As well, some tracks seem more verse-chorus-verse than the band has written in the past. As well, most songs feature what seems to be intended as catchier choruses than dredg's previous work, some of which come off feeling a little flat. The album's vocals are very "busy" in that there aren't all too many moments where the band is left to paint an aural picture for the listener to put together. It's left behind many of the instrumental-heavy passages that its previous albums favored so much. Catch Without Arms is certainly the most radio-friendly album that the band has released to date. On the one hand, no great band has ever stood still, aside from maybe AC/DC (that's a different story), but on the other hand every time a band changes its style a bit it leaves some fans behind. That is to say that the album has a more "uplifted" feel than any of its previous work, for better or for worse. Catch Without Arms is as unlike El Cielo as is El Cielo unlike Leitmotif.
The band's fervent fan base continues to grow to this day, and to those fans dredg has just released its third album, Catch Without Arms. El Cielo hit store shelves in 2002 to rave reviews across the industry and proved that dredg wasn't simply a 1 1/2 trick pony.
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