Death Toll 80k - Step Down

By Professor D. Grover the XIIIth. Greetings and salutations, friends. I return from another long spate of procrastination to bring you a look at one of grindcore's underrated gems. Now, one does not need to be a grind aficionado to be familiar

By Professor D. Grover the XIIIth.


Greetings and salutations, friends. I return from another long spate of procrastination to bring you a look at one of grindcore's underrated gems. Now, one does not need to be a grind aficionado to be familiar with the legendary Insect Warfare; even a tertiary knowledge of the genre should be enough for one to at least be aware of the brilliant World Extermination, a modern death-grind classic. However, it's less likely that you might be aware of Finland's own Death Toll 80k, even though they've been active since Insect Warfare's heyday. The bands share similarities in style and sound, and given that the latter band didn't really start releasing albums until after the demise of the former, it's not hard to imagine Death Toll 80k as a sort of spiritual successor to Insect Warfare.

Death Toll 80k's 2011 full-length debut, Harsh Realities, was a perfect example of this. Like Insect Warfare, they displayed a penchant for dropping punk riffs into their songs to give the listener a brief respite from the otherwise relentless blasting, and they also alternated between nigh-unintelligible guttural roars and higher-pitched screams. Harsh Realities was short, 23 songs in 25 minutes, but it packed enough sonic violence and variation into that span to feel satisfying.

Death Toll 80k at Maryland Deathfest 2013. Photos by Metal Chris

Still, it took 6 long years for Death Toll 80k to release a follow-up, but happily there was no rust to be shaken, as Step Down finds the band picking up where they left off. Here they shoehorn 17 songs into 15 vicious minutes, once again opting for that famed grindcore brevity. The pace is relentless, making the 15 minutes feel even shorter, but it seems that there is less variety present as compared to Harsh Realities, instead relying more on straight-ahead blasting. It's possible this is a side effect of the reduced run-time, but it's a mild disappointment that is more noticeable when you listen to both Death Toll 80k albums in succession.

Step Down sounds good though, with a slightly fuller production than its predecessor. It's claustrophobic and loud (with a dynamic range score of 5), but with grindcore you have to expect an aural assault, so this really isn't overly detrimental to the experience. The whole point of a grindcore album like this is to bludgeon the listener straight in the eardrums, and Step Down accomplishes this with ease. This is the kind of music that will frighten small pets, singe eyebrows, and kill your neighbor's trees. If you're looking for the musical equivalent of a blowtorch to the face, then you can rest easy, because you have come to the right place. Hope you brought safety goggles.

Beyond Grace - Seekers

By Professor D. Grover the XIIIth. Greetings and salutations, friends. Once more, I return from the void that is adult life and parenthood to discuss a particularly appealing and intriguing musical work. Today, we examine Seekers

By Professor D. Grover the XIIIth.

Artwork by Michael Cowell

Greetings and salutations, friends. Once more, I return from the void that is adult life and parenthood to discuss a particularly appealing and intriguing musical work. Today, we examine Seekers, the relatively recent release from Nottingham's own Beyond Grace. I say relatively because Seekers has been out for several months, but I've been otherwise preoccupied and so it has taken me much longer than I'd prefer to work up a proper review.

Beyond Grace are something of a modern-style technical death metal band, although the label itself is unduly restrictive. Technical death metal may be a large part of the foundation of the band's sound, but it's heavily dosed with melodic, progressive, and blackened aspects of death metal. Now, I know what you are likely thinking: there are a lot of bands out there that meld these styles together, and so it gets harder and harder for a band to stand out, so why should you give Beyond Grace your precious listening time? And you are correct, the modern technical/melodic/progressive/blackened death metal scene has become incredibly saturated in the past several years. It's not enough for a band to possess a great deal of technical skill, because there are a hundred other bands full of chaps filling their songs with fleet-fingered arpeggios and mind-melting scales. It's not enough to have a drummer who can change tempos on a dime. It's not enough to have a bassist who can simultaneously underscore the riffs and provide an adventurous counter-melody.

And that brings me to Beyond Grace's true strength, which is their songwriting. They clearly have the elements I just mentioned, like many bands, but those talents are often wasted on disjointed, uninteresting songs that exist more as a collection of technically impressive but ultimately monotonous musicality. Beyond Grace, on the other hand, understand and value the importance of restrained and cohesive songwriting, and that's the true heart of Seekers. There are moments of absolute ferocity, instances of brilliant technicality, but there is always a sense of control, which lets the band take on mid-tempo material effectively, something a lot of technical death metal bands struggle with.

It helps that the album sounds immaculate. Sometimes this can lead to a feeling of sterility, of inhuman mechanality (I'm not sure if that's actually a word, but it is now), but there's a sense of power in Seekers' production that keeps the listener grounded. Vocalist Andy Walmsley alternates deep guttural roars with higher-pitched screams with ease, yet his vocals remain intelligible enough that the lyrics can be understood. Guitarist Tim Yearsley shows a knack for laying down bruising riffs and intoxicating melodies, while bassist Andrew Workman intertwines his own melodies, granting the songs additional depth. The backbone of it all is drummer Ed Gorrod, whose nimble style sees him switching tempos seamlessly while adding texture to the songs with his fills and footwork.

The lyrics are one of the highlights of the album, thanks to the writing of Walmsley. You may know him as Andy Synn, a longtime writer for No Clean Singing, and his work as a writer serve him well, granting his words an intelligence that elevates Seekers even further above many of their contemporaries. One of my personal favorite details is that the track "Apoptosis" is heavily influenced by Jeff VanderMeer's brilliant novel Annihilation, the first book in the deeply unsettling Southern Reach trilogy. Moreover, Walmsley reached out to VanderMeer and got his permission to use some excerpts from the book in the lyrics. It's a wonderful touch on an already excellent song.

In some ways, Seekers is linked in my mind with Blood of the Prophets' album The Stars of the Sky Hid from Me (reviewed by yours truly here). Both bands are stellar examples of how the ability to write coherent, intriguing songs can help a band stand out among similar sounding bands. Seekers is a labor of love from a hard-working band, and the attention to detail paid to these songs is what makes them truly shine. I simply cannot recommend this album highly enough. Beyond Grace have established themselves as a band to be reckoned with.

öOoOoOoOoOo - Samen

By Professor D. Grover the XIIIth. Greetings and salutations, friends. This is a review that has been in the works for months, in part because of my status as both a chronic procrastinator and as a Grown Up with Many Important Adult Things To Do (like Raising My Kids, Trying To Sell My House, and the old classic Working All The Fucking Time).

By Professor D. Grover the XIIIth.

This is the uncensored cover, not available with the download (click for full size).

Greetings and salutations, friends. This is a review that has been in the works for months, in part because of my status as both a chronic procrastinator and as a Grown Up with Many Important Adult Things To Do (like Raising My Kids, Trying To Sell My House, and the old classic Working All The Fucking Time). However, it’s also in part due to the nature of the album I’m reviewing. You see, France’s öOoOoOoOoOo (aka Chenille, which is French for Caterpillar, and now the name makes sense) is the sort of band that is nigh impossible to describe because of the varied nature of their music. This is one of those rare chameleonic bands that changes styles numerous times throughout the course of a song, and how do you put something like that into words?

In the absence of a simple and concise way of describing öOoOoOoOoOo’s music, we can at least start with a few similar-ish bands to give us at least a point of reference. The most obvious is the ever-popular Mr. Bungle, and while the comparison isn’t exact (öOoOoOoOoOo tends to have more of a basis in metal and isn’t quite so scattershot), there’s a lot of common ground between the two, especially in the vocals (more on that in a moment). The next, somewhat obvious parallel would be in the French oddball duo Pin-Up Went Down, mostly because öOoOoOoOoOo vocalist Asphodel was also PUWD’s singer, but also because they shared a similarly wacky musical style. There are also parallels to the likes of Diablo Swing Orchestra, Pryapisme (whose drummer Aymeric Thomas handles session duty for öOoOoOoOoOo), Carnival In Coal, and the late great Unexpect, but make no mistake, öOoOoOoOoOo stands on its own.

öOoOoOoOoOo is a collaboration between the aforementioned Asphodel and French multi-instrumentalist Baptiste Bertrand, along with the session drumming of Aymeric Thomas. If you’re unfamiliar with Asphodel’s prior work, it cannot be stressed enough that she may be one of the most versatile vocalists in music. I mentioned before a comparison to Mr. Bungle, specifically to the voice of Mike Patton, and I can say in all fairness that Asphodel is at least Patton’s equal when it comes to sheer depth and breadth of vocal weirdness and range. This is not hyperbole; one needs simply listen to "Chairleg Thesis" or "Bark City (A Glimpse Of Something)" to get a taste of what Asphodel can do. Her voice soars to operatic highs, dips to lounge singer lows, detours to guttural grunts, and occasionally goes full-on childlike. It’s the sort of vocal performance that you honestly won’t find anywhere else.

It’s also the sort of vocal performance that needs appropriate accompaniment to reach its maximum potential, and on Samen Asphodel has found an effective counterpart in Bertrand, whose songwriting prowess is impressive for an unknown (I did some brief Googling and was unable to find any previous work in his name, making this an exceptionally impressive debut). There are moments when öOoOoOoOoOo goes full-blown death metal, but those moments are relatively rare and all the more precious because of it. Much of what Bertrand does plays off the vocals perfectly, finding moods and twists in the songs and bringing them out, from the lurching orchestral swing of "No Guts = No Masters" to the electronic underpinnings of "Fumigène" to the melancholy outro to "LVI" (I think that’s a xylophone). Bertrand’s musical prowess is absolutely essential to Samen, aided by the able drumming of Thomas (no stranger himself to weirdness thanks to his tenure in Pryapisme, a gloriously odd band in their own right).

Describing Samen, even in a track-by-track fashion, would be an exhausting and overwhelming task, and ultimately it would be pointless. This is not the sort of album that can be easily described in words any more than you could explain the color orange to a person blind from birth. This is the sort of musical adventure that needs to be experienced firsthand. It is, however, one of 2016’s most rewarding, refreshingly odd releases, and one well worth multiple listens. Stay weird, my friends.

Wormrot - Voices

By Professor D. Grover the XIIIth. Greetings and salutations, friends. Your esteemed Professor returns today to discuss the return of Singaporean grind bastards Wormrot, whose new release Voices is their first full-length work in five years, an eternity in a subgenre that tends to measure time in 30 second increments.

By Professor D. Grover the XIIIth.


Greetings and salutations, friends. Your esteemed Professor returns today to discuss the return of Singaporean grind bastards Wormrot, whose new release Voices is their first full-length work in five years, an eternity in a subgenre that tends to measure time in 30 second increments. Wormrot’s rise to fame was, appropriately enough, blisteringly quick, thanks to the strength of their debut album Abuse, which packed a lot of classic grindcore fury and a little bit of groove into 22 minutes. Their followup, Dirge, cemented their status as an essential modern grind band, and so it was something of a surprise when the band announced that they were taking a multi-year hiatus, driven in no small part by Singapore’s compulsory national service. However, they continued to work on new material, replaced their drummer, and now the fruit of that long labor has come to light in the form of Voices.

At 20 songs spread across 26 minutes, Voices is the longest album in the Wormrot archive, both in total length and in average song length. Lest you worry that the band was becoming long-winded, however, rest assured that most of the song durations here still hover around the minute mark (there are only three tracks that clock in at longer than 1:23 and serve to skew the statistics a bit). More surprisingly, however, is that the band experiments with their tried-and-true sound on a number of tracks, courtesy of some melodic riffs that seem to draw influence from black metal, shoegaze, and the work of Gridlink. (The Gridlink comparison is especially apt when Arif’s higher-pitched screams are worked into the mix, bringing to mind Jon Chang’s distinctive vocals.) It’s a surprise, to be sure, but it also brings some added variety to the album and provides the listener with a break from the more traditional grind blasting.

Wormrot 2011. Photo by Metal Chris

With regard to the aforementioned blasting, Wormrot’s new drummer Vijesh acquits himself well, anchoring the album’s shifting tempos and laying down some devastating blastbeats. Guitarist Rasyid brings the band’s trademark riffs and grooves while incorporating a whole host of new textures into their sound, creating heaviness without the backing of a bass. And vocalist Arif mixes high shrieks and low grunts deftly, a key component in the band’s signature viciousness. The result is that Voices will immediately feel familiar to Wormrot fans while simultaneously throwing those same fans a few curveballs.

The marketing push behind Voices has made heavy use of the hashtag #MakeEaracheGrindAgain, a worthwhile sentiment if I’ve ever heard one, and something I can support, unlike the actual campaign that they’re parodying. In a year that’s seen some quality grindcore releases (from the likes of Magrudergrind, Gadget, Venomous Concept, Rotten Sound, and Collision), Voices is a standout and a fitting return for Wormrot. It simultaneously establishes that the trio have lost nothing in the last five years and expands upon their established sound without losing any of what makes them distinctive. Here’s hoping that it’s not four more years until the next album.

From the Graveyard Shift - Hip-hop for Metal Fans

By Professor D. Grover the XIIIth. Greetings and salutations, friends. It is I, your most humble Professor, returned from the sleepless land inhabited by those so blessed (or cursed, depending on where you stand) to have a newborn child while also working the graveyard shift. I was given a special task, one that may seem at odds with the very mission of this particular blog

By Professor D. Grover the XIIIth.

Greetings and salutations, friends. It is I, your most humble Professor, returned from the sleepless land inhabited by those so blessed (or cursed, depending on where you stand) to have a newborn child while also working the graveyard shift. I was given a special task, one that may seem at odds with the very mission of this particular blog, but bear with me. You see, I have been enlisted to provide to you, fans of metal music, with a handful of hip-hop artists that might appeal to your sensibilities, a goal I hope I will have achieved by the end of this missive. Let us begin.


[Note: This article originally started with a look at Death Grips' classic mixtape Exmilitary. It is no longer available on Bandcamp, so we go straight to the second artist]

It’s hard to mention Death Grips and not mention clipping., as both groups have a basis in noise and feature distinctive frontmen. However, the difference between the two groups couldn’t be more pronounced. Where Death Grips are the hip-hop equivalent of a brick to the head thanks to MC Ride’s blunt style, clipping. are more of a surgical scalpel to the throat thanks to Daveed Diggs’ razor-quick flow and street life lyrics. (If the name sounds familiar, it’s because Diggs won a Tony over the summer for his role in the smash-hit musical Hamilton.) Musically, clipping. are as experimental as Death Grips, but take their experimentations in a different direction, from the straight harsh noise of Midcity to the more varied, industrial CLPPNG. The group has released the brilliant Wriggle EP already this year and are following it up with the dystopian sci-fi concept album Splendor & Misery, which was released Sept. 9 and is an utterly brilliant new direction for the trio.

This was a difficult choice, because I very nearly went with the entirety of Minneapolis’ Doomtree rap crew, rather than settling on a single member. The five rappers and two beatmakers that comprise the group have released several collaborative albums, and although each member brings something different to the table, they work incredibly well as a single unit. However, I felt the need to focus on a single member of the group, and ultimately the choice came down to P.O.S or Dessa, and P.O.S won by the barest margin, in large part due to the influence of his punk background, something that bleeds through into his music. His wry sense of humor and nimble delivery suit his anarchic, intelligent lyrics perfectly, allowing him to match up with a number of different musical styles.

First, a confession: this slot was originally going to be occupied by El-P (whom you may best know as half of Run The Jewels), but unfortunately, his solo work isn’t on Bandcamp aside from a few demos and b-sides, so I had to find another pick. Fortunately, there’s a ton of great rappers out there, and so finding a replacement was simple. Tonedeff was a logical choice due to his versatility, as the man raps, sings, produces, and makes his own beats. His most recent release, Polymer, is the culmination of several years of work spanning three EPs, each of which represent a different aspect of his style. These three EPs are joined by a fourth set of tracks to create a full album showcasing his many talents. And then there’s perhaps the most distinctive element to Tonedeff’s style, the sheer speed and smoothness of his flow, which reaches some dizzying heights (see "Crispy", which sees him hitting 14 syllables per second while still maintaining recognizable lyrics).

Cover art by Alex Pardee

I conclude with my favorite rapper of all time, the incomparable Aesop Rock. Aes possesses a highly distinctive voice that pairs with the most verbose, adventurous sense of lyricism that hip-hop has ever seen to create something wholly unique. To put it quite simply, there is no one like him in all of music, and if you can find it within you to pierce the massive wall of words that the man throws at you on every track, you will find something truly special. There are few rappers who can even keep pace with him (most notable is Rob Sonic, Aes’ collaborator on the Hail Mary Mallon albums and one of the few artists out there who can nearly match him phrase for phrase while bringing a similar gift for lyrical non-sequiturs), and any track that features him as a guest is immediately elevated. His most recent album, 2016’s The Impossible Kid, is his most personal and intensely emotional album, laying out his life like only Aesop can. It is at this point in the year my favorite album of 2016, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.

Other artists of note that are worth checking out:
Busdriver
MC Frontalot
Dessa
Astronautalis
Sage Francis
Del The Funky Homosapien
Jesse Dangerously
Watsky
Rob Sonic
Prof
More Or Les
Open Mike Eagle

Odyssey - Voids

By Professor D. Grover the XIIIth. Greetings and salutations, friends. I, your venerable Professor, have joined you today to discuss a band near and dear to my own heart, Spokane-based instrumental trio Odyssey. I've been a vocal proponent of the group since hearing

By Professor D. Grover the XIIIth.


Greetings and salutations, friends. I, your venerable Professor, have joined you today to discuss a band near and dear to my own heart, Spokane-based instrumental trio Odyssey. I've been a vocal proponent of the group since hearing their Schematics EP several years ago, and an album and two additional EPs later we find Odyssey releasing a second full-length, titled Voids.

Over the past few years, the trio (consisting of guitarist Jerrick Crites and the Brothers Hilker, bassist Jordan and drummer Lukas) has been quite active, not only with Odyssey but also as three-fourths of the instrumental rock group 3H, a band that also features the talents of the Hilker clan patriarch Fred. In a remarkably short time period the three have honed their considerable talents to a fine edge, expanding their prog-metal sound with rock influences and establishing a solid identity as artists.

This brings us to Voids, a release that pulls together the stages of the band's evolution into a single cohesive package. Voids deftly mixes the bass-grounded heaviness of the early years with the more guitar-oriented experimentation of the group's recent releases, and the finished product is a perfect culmination of everything Odyssey has been building toward to this point. The album features some of the band's heaviest material since Schematics ("Before There Were Eyes To See", "Delineation"), but there's plenty of room left for extended guitar soloing and stripped-down melodic passages.

Odyssey have never been shy about their influences, and Voids seems to derive a fair amount from Dream Theater and Rush, but these influences are never heavy-handed and don't feel forced. They're a natural part of the band's DNA, an insight reinforced by familiarity with Odyssey’s previous work, and like any great band, the integrate the music that has inspired them without becoming mindless imitators. Crites and the Hilkers possess the necessary level of talent and creativity to pull off such an integration and make it look easy in the process.

In a previous review, likely from the long-defunct Number of the Blog, I discussed how Odyssey play music for the love of music, because there's not really a lot of money in prog metal, and I stand by that statement now. Listening to Voids along with their previous works, it's really apparent that there's a constant drive to better themselves as musicians and songwriters, to progress their sound organically without losing the identity that makes them unique. They create this music out of passion for their craft, and although it may seem like a cliche, that doesn't make it any less true.

It's been my great pleasure to witness firsthand (well, sort of) the evolution and growth of Odyssey. With the sheer number of bands fighting for your attention on a daily basis, it’s easy to become jaded and cynical when it comes to music, grumbling about the good old days (even if you were in diapers for the good old days). But it can be comforting to know that there are still bands like Odyssey who are out there making quality music for the simple joy of creation. To borrow a phrase from The Stranger in The Big Lebowski, “I don't know about you but I take comfort in that. It's good knowin' they're out there. Odyssey. Takin’ ‘er easy for all us sinners.”

Chthe'ilist - Le Dernier Crépuscule

By Professor D. Grover the XIIIth. Chthe’ilist sound like Demilich. There, we’ve gotten that out of the way. Greetings and salutations, friends. Today, we will plumb the depths of a madness emanating from Quebec in the form of

By Professor D. Grover the XIIIth.

Artwork by Paolo Girardi

Chthe’ilist sound like Demilich.

There, we’ve gotten that out of the way. Greetings and salutations, friends. Today, we will plumb the depths of a madness emanating from Quebec in the form of Le Dernier Crépuscule (French for "The Last Twilight", presumably not a reference to Breaking Dawn) and the Finn-worshipping Chthe’ilist. As I mentioned (and as has been mentioned in likely every article regarding the band in the history of time), Chthe’ilist draw no insignificant amount of influence from infamous Finnish oddballs Demilich. It’s an unavoidable comparison, given both bands’ predilection for off-kilter riffs, but to simply dismiss the band as pure Demilich worship is pure folly.

While we’re addressing misconceptions regarding Chthe’ilist, let’s not forget that despite the band’s name and apostrophe-ridden song titles like "Vecoiitn’aphnaat’smaala" and "N'triiodctuion'to Iagorsmataanph" (from the similarly apostrophe-ridden Amechth'ntaas'm'rriachth demo), none of the band’s material is drawn from the Cthulhu Mythos. This is not to say that the band’s lyrics aren’t influenced by the works of Lovecraft, because the influence is clear on lyrics such as these:

A lone traveller gazes at the stygian horizon, as twilight fades below the distant mountains. Slowly, shades of darkness descend upon the desolated plains before him, and a sense of dread plagues his mind: the certitude that something is lurking amidst the withered trees, haunting him ever since the sun has vanished.

But it is important to note that the lyrics are almost entirely based on original works by the band.

You will notice, of course, that I said “almost entirely”, and that is where we come to one element of Chthe’ilist’s work where there are no misconceptions. If the title of the album’s final track, "Tales Of The Majora Mythos Part 1", doesn’t make it abundantly clear, Chthe’ilist have written songs based on The Legend Of Zelda (specifically, Ocarina Of Time and Majora’s Mask). The deeply unsettling tone of the lyrics may seem a bit at odds with the atmosphere of the Legend Of Zelda games initially, but the combination is incredibly effective in practice:

A cursed moon hangs low in the tumultuous skies, glowing ominously over plains of arid desolation. A stone tower stands before these haunted lands, its structure perpetually ascending toward the heavens. Bitter lamentations from lingering spirits echo through the valley, speaking of a forgotten aeon. Rumours of ancient men, and their war against the gods, bridging their world to the sacred realm.

Musically speaking, I mentioned the similarities to Demilich, and I also mentioned how Chthe’ilist are far more than a mere Demilich clone. The bands share a predilection for odd compositions and unconventional, sometimes discordant riffing, and there’s a technicality to the music that bears certain similarities, but Chthe’ilist draw a great deal of influence from a number of other classic death metal bands, from Gorguts and Convulse to Adramalech and Incantation. (Certainly, vocalist Philippe Tougas bears more of a sonic resemblance to Craig Pillard than Antti Boman, aside from some moments and interludes that find Tougas creating some truly alien sounds with his vocal cords.)

Chthe’ilist are comprised of Tougas (who provides lead guitar, bass, and synths in addition to vocals AND plays in a number of other bands, including Serocs and the underrated First Fragment), Claude Leduc (who handles guitar, synths, and some occasional bass), and Philippe Boucher (an insanely talented drummer who is also in Beyond Creation). The trio are incredibly talented and rise admirably to the challenge of creating such challenging, compelling material, layering unusual riffs with eerily beautiful leads, the occasional dash of slap bass, held together by some astoundingly versatile drumming. The production is simultaneously spacious (thanks to some well-implemented reverb) and suffocating, but none of the musical elements are lost in the mix and everything is distinct without feeling sterile or robotic.

If I had a complaint about the album, it would be that the music is by its very nature rather inaccessible and difficult to wrap one’s head around. Without a number of repeat listens, the songs can be difficult to remember and may turn off the more casual listeners. However, digging beneath the surface and immersing one’s self in the music can be incredibly rewarding, revealing an album that stands out from a sea of squeaky clean tech death bands and HM-2-wielding Swedeath revivalists. The investment in time is well worth it.

So, as I said earlier, Chthe’ilist sound like Demilich, and that’s okay, but it’s important to remember that there’s much more to Le Dernier Crépuscule. This is one of the deepest, most inventive death metal creations you will hear all year, and to miss out would be to do yourself a great disservice.

Thy Catafalque - Sgùrr

By Professor D. Grover the XIIIth. Greetings and salutations, friends. It is I, your esteemed Professor, and I return to you to examine one of the year’s most intriguing new releases, Thy Catafalque’s masterful Sgùrr. Many of you may have already read my retrospective on Thy Catafalque, which discusses the importance of the band’s later works

By Professor D. Grover the XIIIth.


Greetings and salutations, friends. It is I, your esteemed Professor, and I return to you to examine one of the year’s most intriguing new releases, Thy Catafalque’s masterful Sgùrr. Many of you may have already read my retrospective on Thy Catafalque, which discusses the importance of the band’s later works; for those of you who haven’t, go ahead; I’ll wait.

And welcome back. Now, the impetus for writing such a retrospective was in no small part due to the impending release of this album, which at that time I had only heard a portion small enough to whet my appetite. Sometime thereafter, I was privileged enough to get to hear it, and so I began to prepare the groundwork for the very article you are presently reading. For those of you who have tried it, reviewing an album is not always easy, but it’s immeasurably easier when it’s an artist or album that you are passionate about, and as you may have gleaned from my previous article, there are few artists I that inspire me like Thy Catafalque.

As with Rengeteg, the predecessor to Sgùrr, Thy Catafalque is the solo work of Tamás Kátai along with a few musical guests. Of note, prior collaborators Attila Bakos and Ágnes Tóth do not appear on Sgùrr, as the album features almost no clean vocals; however, the album does feature guest vocals and double bass from Kátai’s former Gire bandmates Zoltán Kónya and Balázs Hermann, respectively, as well as the violin talents of Dimitris Papageorgiou. That there are no clean vocals (excluding the spoken word intro, narrated by Viktória Varga, and the operatic outro, sung by Ágnes Sipos - more on this in a moment) is noteworthy, as their absence serves to further differentiate Sgùrr from the albums that precede it.

Evolution between albums is one of Thy Catafalque’s defining characteristics, a consistent thread throughout the band’s history that continues with Sgùrr. As mentioned, there are no clean vocals, a shift from the last several albums, but it is far from the only difference. The album itself is bookended by a pair of brief tracks, both titled "Zúgó", and help to provide an odd sort of symmetry to the album’s structure that is notable when looking at the tracklist and song times. The album’s main concept involves the relationship between mountains and water, inspired by the Scottish highlands of Kátai’s current home and the Hungarian lowlands of his former, and the album’s structure forms a sort of valley (consisting of three short tracks, some of the album’s fastest and heaviest) between two massive mountain peaks (in the form of two 15-minute-plus epics).

Kátai is certainly no stranger to experimenting with album structure, and so it comes as no surprise that he continues to play with the listener’s expectations on Sgùrr. After the intro, a point when most bands would blast the listener with one of their heaviest tracks, Kátai instead chooses to lead with "Alföldi kozmosz", the initial track premiered from Sgùrr and one that features an intriguing mix of acoustic guitar, violin, and Kátai’s signature drum programming. It’s a curveball straight out of the gate, and yet the track is effective in getting the listener involved thanks to its upbeat, folky stomp. "Alföldi kozmosz" also serves as a notice to the listener that, yes, this is a Thy Catafalque album and bears the recognizable hallmarks of a Thy Catafalque album, but it’s also going to be something that takes those elements and hammers them into something different.

The track that follows, "Oldódó formák a halál titokzatos birodalmában", is perhaps the clearest example of how the album uses the familiar Thy Catafalque sound to create something new. It’s one of the album’s two mountain peaks, and as such is a journey unto itself, driven by a propulsive riff/synth melody combination and some of the most creative drum programming yet heard on a Thy Catafalque album. (I understand that programmed drums can be a detriment to a lot of artists, but one of Kátai’s most consistently interesting elements is the drum sound and the beats and rhythms he creates, and Sgùrr is no exception.) The song features the first hint of the speed and heaviness that dominates a good portion of Sgùrr, but it also demonstrates Kátai’s love of varying song structures with an extended breather in its midst. More than anything, this is the song that defines the album and what it does.

This leads to the valley of the album’s midpoint, featuring the slow, melodic descent into the foothills on "A hajnal kék kapuja", followed by the turbulent river of "Élő lény" and the violent rapids of "Jura", perhaps the two heaviest songs on the album. Both tracks deliver the sort of blackened fury that characterized Thy Catafalque’s early work, but both tracks are tempered by Kátai’s incomparable sense of melody. From here, we ascend back into the peaks with "Eilde Sgùrr Mòr", a track named for a Scottish mountain, and the song builds from a similarly furious beginning to a more mid-paced ascent, some brief horn-sounding synths that bring Sear Bliss’ best work to mind, and then the song grinds almost entirely to a halt, setting the stage for a slow descent to the other side. The album concludes with the moody, almost dirgelike "Keringő" and the operatic a capella of the second "Zúgó".

Perhaps more than any previous Thy Catafalque album, Sgùrr feels like a journey, a hike through the realm of nature yet unspoiled by the infringements of civilization. It is at once familiar to fans of Thy Catafalque’s previous work and something new, a continuation of an established style and an evolution of that style all at once, something that few artists ever manage to successfully do. (Indeed, I racked my brain trying to think of a good comparison, and the best I could come up with is Trent Reznor’s ever-changing style with Nine Inch Nails.) All the trademarks of Kátai’s work are present, from the thunderous guitar riffs and distinctive drum sound to the incomparable synth melodies, but the way that they are presented and deployed serves to create an album that both fits comfortably into the Thy Catafalque discography and yet stands out as its own unique work.

I suppose what I’m trying to say, friends, is that Sgùrr is one of the most interesting, creative, brilliant albums of the year. It is a collection of excellent songs, yes, but it is meant to be consumed as a whole, listened to in a single sitting with no distractions. This is music being made for the sake of music with an utter disregard for styles and trends, art that is wholly without compromise being created simply because its creator was inspired. This is what music should be.

Artist Spotlight: Thy Catafalque

By Professor D. Grover the XIIIth. Greetings and salutations, friends. For those of seeing my name and wondering who the hell I am, allow to to briefly introduce myself. I am Professor D. Grover the XIIIth, and you may remember me from such obscure blogs as The Number Of The Blog, Oculus Infernus, and No Clean Singing. If any of those sites rings a bell, excellent.

By Professor D. Grover the XIIIth.

Greetings and salutations, friends. For those of seeing my name and wondering who the hell I am, allow to to briefly introduce myself. I am Professor D. Grover the XIIIth, and you may remember me from such obscure blogs as The Number Of The Blog, Oculus Infernus, and No Clean Singing. If any of those sites rings a bell, excellent. If not, that is unfortunate, but hopefully you will take the time to consume my mad scribblings anyway. Now, to the point at hand.


I have been recruited for this article because I am, in short, a massive Thy Catafalque fanboy. I have been known to vocally proclaim my entirely platonic love for Thy Catafalque mainman and all-around musical genius Tamás Kátai. Thy Catafalque, for the unfamiliar, is a Hungarian avant-garde black metal band, although labeling it as such does the music a disservice, as the project’s music is so uniquely expansive and varied that a simple label can do little to truly describe it. However, as a starting point, such a label is the nearest touchstone that I can provide, and so it shall have to do for the moment.

The band’s roots are fairly simple, starting as a collaboration between the extremely prolific Kátai (who at the band’s inception was also releasing music under the monikers of Darklight, Towards Rusted Soil, Gort, and Gire) and guitarist János Juhász. Thy Catafalque’s initial material was decidedly more black metal than avant-garde, and in truth I haven’t listened to those albums a great deal, but even then they bore the imprints of Kátai’s unique sensibilities, which I will cover momentarily. As of the last Thy Catafalque album, the brilliant Rengeteg, Kátai had taken over as the band’s sole member, but the change did not affect the band’s sound much, which as I will discuss is a very, very good thing.

Thy Catafalque have a new album, titled Sgùrr, coming soon via Season Of Mist, and as that time approaches there has been a flurry of activity, with re-releases of the entire Thy Catafalque catalog on vinyl and CD, including the most recent (and sold out) compilation of The Early Works, which encompass the first three Thy Catafalque releases into a single 3-disc package, and the name-your-price Bandcamp release of the lone full-length Gire album, a Hungarian death metal project featuring Kátai’s synth-work and drum programming that is most likely the closest thing in sound to Thy Catafalque that I have managed to find up to this point. Most importantly, Thy Catafalque’s two most important releases have seen remasters and have also been released on Bandcamp as name-your-price downloads, and it is these releases I am here to discuss.


The first of these releases is 2004’s Tűnő idő tárlat (translated, An Exhibition of Vanishing Time), an album as daring in composition as it is brilliant. It takes true testicular fortitude to start your album with two 9+ minute tracks bookending a massive 18+ minute epic, but the opening journey of "Csillagkohó", "Neath Waters (Minden Vízbe Mártott Test)", and "Bolygó, bolyongó" bear testament to just how insanely great this album is. Across these three tracks, the listener is dragged through searing black metal, pounding industrial, trancelike electro, and dreamlike ambient passages with little regard for one’s sanity. It’s an exhausting, exhilarating way to start an album, and afterward there are still five more tracks to go.

It’s important to note at this point that while I can attempt to describe exactly what you will hear on these albums, I will fail miserably at doing so. That much is an absolute certainty. You have to hear the tracks for themselves to truly understand what I am attempting to convey. Fortunately, technology being what it is, you can listen to the album via the embedded widget as you read along! I cannot recommend highly enough that you do this, because it is the only true way for you to experience such an intricately nuanced album.

The remaining five tracks are equally dynamic, from the dirgelike riffing of "Héja-nász az avaron" and the ethereal female vocals (provided by session vocalist Nikoletta Gerzanits) of "Zápor" to the thumping drums and blistering riffs of "Az ősanya szól ivadékaihoz" and the stark soundscape denouement of "Varjak fekszenek". The most intriguing thing to my ear with this album is the mix of disparate musical styles, and not only that they are present on the same album and within the same songs, but often that they are present at the same time. This is noteworthy, because often with avant-garde and experimental music you will see bands switching between styles rather than combining them. Often you will hear ambient passages and clean instrumentation underlaid by a heavy electronic beat (the drums are entirely programmed and very distinct, an element of the Thy Catafalque sound that has existed since the beginning), or heavy riffs interwoven with melodic synth lines or the aforementioned clean instrumentation (see the latter half of "Az ősanya szól ivadékaihoz", where the riffs give way momentarily for a mix of piano and violin before joining right back in, until the whole thing is swept away by a pulsing, building electronic section). It is, to be honest, unlike anything I have ever heard.

Actually, that’s not entirely accurate, because we also have Róka hasa rádió (translated, Fox Belly Radio), the 2009 followup that matches Tűnő idő tárlat for sheer brilliance and audacity. Rather like its predecessor, it challenges the listener immediately by starting with an 11-minute track and then following that up with a 19-minute epic. Album opener "Szervetlen" serves notice that you are in for another journey, featuring some insanely heavy guitars and programmed percussion, interspersed with clean vocals (provided by Woodland Choir/Quadrivium singer Attila Bakos, who would also lend his voice to Rengeteg) and Kátai’s distinctive keyboards.

The second track, the aforementioned 19-minute epic "Molekuláris gépezetek", is truly special. It is the track that first made Thy Catafalque’s music truly click for me, and I cannot say enough about it. It starts with sheer blackened fury, all roiling guitars, hazy tortured vocals, pounding drums, held together by a pervasive synth melody. It quickly scales back, incorporating Bakos back into the mix and changing up the drums, and then around the 6 minute mark it takes an absolute left turn, dropping almost all instrumentation except for a shuffling drumbeat, some clean guitar, and a spare synth melody. It then changes up the drumbeat ever so slightly and adds, of all things, a saxophone melody and the beautiful clean vocals of Ágnes Tóth (who also would go on to contribute on Rengeteg). Eventually, it strips everything down to just the synths for a bit before swinging back into the drums and Tóth’s vocals. Then, when the listener has been lulled into a false sense of security around 15 minutes in, the song comes blasting back. It is an absolutely insane way to write a song, and by all rights it shouldn’t work, but it simply does.

Again, it is an absolutely exhausting and exhilarating way to start an album. From that point, Kátai plays it a bit more traditional, with the remaining seven tracks ranging from 4-6 minutes, although the music is no less weird and varied. Bakos and Tóth play important roles, with Bakos assuming the lead vocals on "Köd utánam" and "Esőlámpás", both of which combine his cleans with driving guitar riffs and the sort of utterly unforgettable synth melodies that seems to be Kátai’s specialty. "Űrhajók makón", on the other hand, gives Tóth free reign over yet another beautiful keyboard melody. The synth programming actually takes more precedent on Róka hasa rádió, playing to the album’s concept (as described by Kátai, “revolving, rotating movements of past and future, colours, sounds, long lost scents by a strange transmission from a timeless radio”), although Juhász’ guitar riffs play their own essential role, and Kátai’s bandmates in Gire, Balázs Hermann and Zoltán Kónya, provide additional bass and guitars respectively. If anything, Róka hasa rádió is even more adventurous and experimental than its predecessor, although both albums are utterly brilliant and unlike anything else out there.

I would be remiss in not at least mentioning Rengeteg, the 2011 followup to Róka hasa rádió released through Season Of Mist. Rengeteg found Kátai continuing the project as a solo act, upping the aggression ever so slightly and reining in things a bit (the longest track here is a mere 14 minutes and comes in the album’s midsection), but make no mistake, it is still most definitely a Thy Catafalque album and retains everything that makes this band special.

It seems fitting to conclude with the information we have regarding Sgùrr (translated, The Top Of A Mountain from Scottish Gaelic, a nod to Kátai’s new home in Scotland), the forthcoming new Thy Catafalque album. Due October 16th, the album promises to be another shift in sound. Says Kátai,

The title of this album derives from Scottish Gaelic and means 'the top of a mountain'. Yet most of the songs are equally about water, mountains, their interrelationship and the symbols attached to them - inspired by the Scottish Highlands and weird enough the Hungarian Lowlands. There are not many vocal lines at all, but when there occur, they are not pleasant. Compare to previous albums this music is mostly unfriendly, bristling and cold compared to the previous albums. I guess everything is more metal this time.

At this time, there is a single full track available for streaming, the drums-guitar-violin instrumental "Alföldi Kozmosz", and an ambient minute-and-a-half teaser on YouTube previewing an unspecified track. Both serve only to further heighten my need to hear this album. In the meantime, well, at least I have a couple of classics to occupy my time.