Dead Letter Circus vocalist Kim Benzie is a self-confessed pursuant of spiritual awakening. So much so that the Brisbane quintet’s second record was deeply inspired by his experiences with ayahuasca in South America. Its vivid artwork even mirrors the mandala Benzie had inked on his chest by a shamanic tattooist. Mandalas denote the layers of a spiritual journey—from contemplation to realization and beyond. A complete mandala is the universe in its ideal form. The Catalyst Fire’s cover art is notably actualized to the point that it is on cosmic fire, suggestive of the fact that Dead Letter Circus has arrived at a point of understanding where solutions can be considered. Burning answers, maybe, to the burning questions posed by their debut: 2010’s inquiry into the self-hating immune system of modern life, This Is The Warning. You don’t hear Benzie resignedly howl “See you at work on Monday” here. You will, instead, be greeted by compelling determination: “Show me where the progress exists without the protest,” he demands on blazing opener “The Cure.” The price of freedom is eternal spiritual vigilance, The Catalyst Fire insists unabatedly, right up until the existential certainty of closer “Kachina.” “There’s not enough of you here today,” cautions “Alone Awake,” with lead single “Lodestar” recalling the sheer pace of This Is The Warning, but definitely and defiantly not its malaise: “I can see through the rise and fall/The smoke and the mirror that blinds it all.”