OUR LIST OF 2011’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS: PART 16

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2011  3 Responses »
Jan 102012
 

This is Part 16 of our list of the most infectious extreme metal songs released this year. Each day until the list is finished, I’m posting two songs that made the cut. For more details about what this list is all about and how it was compiled, read the Introduction via this link. To see the selections that preceded this one, click the Category link on the right side of the page called MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2011.

Today’s first song was an early and easy pick for this list — hands down, it’s one of my favorite songs of 2011. It’s only emerging as an addition to the list at this late date because I first wanted to finish a review of the album from whence it comes — which I finally accomplished as of today. The second song was also an early favorite, but I’ve had it in my head to pair these songs together, for reasons I’ll try to explain. Here we go:

THY CATAFALQUE

There’s not much I need to say here about this band’s 2011 album Rengeteg, because earlier today I posted a detailed review of it. In a nutshell, it was one of my favorite albums of 2011 — maybe even my most favorite. It’s an odd feeling to have, because the vast majority of the singing is clean and many of the songs are not what anyone would consider “extreme metal” — but that’s my honest reaction to the music. Continue reading »

THY CATAFALQUE: “RENGETEG”

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule  20 Responses »
Jan 102012
 

I listened to a lot of albums in 2011, most of them new releases. I made mental lists and written lists of the ones I wanted to review, not because I think I’m particularly good at it, but because I want to do my part to help spread the word about music I admire and to support good bands so they’ll continue making music that makes me happy ( yes, it all comes down to selfishness in the end).

Of course, I fell down on the job miserably. I just didn’t get around to reviewing everything I wanted to praise in 2011. With the new year under way, I know that psychologically I’ll feel motivated to focus on new releases this year instead of trying to catch up on writing about 2011 albums.  But if I never write about another 2011 album, there’s one I cannot leave unheralded — Rengeteg.

If this 2011 album from Thy Catafalque consisted of the 9 minutes and 20 seconds of “Fekete mezők” and 51 minutes of mind-numbing elevator music, I would still be happy. “Fekete mezők” is one of my favorite songs of the year. But that song is just the beginning of an album’s worth of musical marvels — and no two of them are alike.

The songs flow into each other without pause, pulling the listener along with them as they cross a constantly changing landscape of sounds and emotions. The idea of crossing a landscape isn’t just the feeling conjured by the movement of the music. It also emerges from the lyrics.

The words are in Hungarian, but they’ve recently become available in English translations, and I found them interesting to read while listening to the album (for the umpteenth time). If there’s a concept I can discern, it is one about the unity of life and matter, about the connectedness of human beings to the Earth, and more than the Earth, to the star-spawned matter of which we and it are made. Continue reading »

THE TOP 10 LIST OF TAMÁS KÁTAI (THY CATAFALQUE)

 Listmania  11 Responses »
Dec 192011
 

(Tamás Kátai is the man behind a Hungarian band called Thy Catafalque, whose fifth album Rengeteg is one of my favorite recordings of the year,  for reasons I’ll be explaining in a forthcoming review. Also, a song from that album will appear soon on our list of the year’s most infectious extreme metal songs. So of course, as part of our Listmania series, I asked Tamás to contribute his list of the year’s best albums — and here we have it.)

10. Baaba Kulka – Baaba Kulka

A Polish band with early Iron Maiden covers up to Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son album. Why it’s interesting and worthy of note is that they handle the task with exceptional freedom and taste. My faves are the trip-hopish “Aces High” and the beautifully low-key “Flight Of Icarus”. True Warriors Of Heavy Metal keep out!


Continue reading »

TEASERS: NEW MUSIC FROM THY CATAFALQUE, VEKTOR, IMMOLATION, AND GOATWHORE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  14 Responses »
Oct 052011
 

Oh baby, did yesterday bring some titillating musical teasers. Actually, only two of the four teasers featured in this post are actual music. The other two are simply forecasts of music that will become available shortly.

By the way, I’m writing this in a hurry because I’m about to leave for the airport. The old fucking day job is sending me to the East Coast for a couple of days. I’ll tell you, the life of a coke mule isn’t as glamorous as it’s cracked up to be. The prospect of parking my tender, balloon-filled butt in a cramped airplane seat for 5+ hours isn’t appealing. But it comes with the territory, y’know? Anyway, when I ignore all your comments until tonight, it won’t mean I don’t love you.

THY CATAFALQUE

This talented Hungarian band has already teased us about their new album on Season of Mist, Rengeteg, which won’t actually see the full light of day until November 11 and fucking January 10, 2012 in North America. Yes, last month we got some snippets of music (featured at NCS here) — not even a full song, but certainly enough to stir our loins in anticipation. Now we have a full song, the first to debut from the new album. It’s called “Fekete mezők”, which means “black fields”. And guess what? Season of Mist has made it available for free download HERE. Listen up (right after the jump): Continue reading »

A VIOLATION OF THE GENEVA CONVENTION

 Metal News  11 Responses »
Sep 192011
 

I’m beginning to think that the Geneva Convention should be amended to prohibit album teasers, unless the music sucks like a toothless meth whore, in which case, y’know, the sooner it’s over the better. But when the music sounds awesome, it’s torture to be given just a few seconds of tease and then be left tumescent and unsatisfied.

I used to think Tamás Kátai and his band Thy Catafalque were great. I’ve been singing their praises recently (here, for example). What a fool I’ve been. I’ve learned the hard way that they’re just a bunch of teases. I wake up this morning, bleary eyes still crusted with sleep and belly badly in need of caffeination. I stumble over to the computer and check the e-mail to see if any of my supposed African benefactors have actually made arrangements to provide the bags of gold dust and multi-million-dollar wire transfers they promised in return for my personal details, and what do I see instead but a note from Tamás about the dose of torture at the top of this post.

Yes, it’s a fucking album teaser. Just long enough to produce a swelling sensation in my pants and then . . . silence. It’s an especially heartless thing to do since the new album (the band’s first on Season of Mist) won’t be released until November 11 in Europe and fucking January 10, 2012 in North America. I bet dollars to donuts that they’re not finished with the torturing either. I bet they’re going to release a song sometime between now and then followed by more tumescence and then more . . . . . . . . . . waiting.

I am one of those people who believes that my own suffering will be ameliorated if I cause other people to suffer in the same way. Don’t you just love people like that? So, listen to the teaser, won’t you? It’s after the jump. Continue reading »

IN THE NEWS AND IN YOUR EARS: THY CATAFALQUE, HYPOCRISY, AGALLOCH, AND RYE WOLVES

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  7 Responses »
Sep 072011
 

Here’s another daily round-up of news and new music that I noticed today. All of these items perked me right up, so I thought I’d share them.

THY CATAFALQUE

Compared to other metal blogs, we’re late to the Thy Catafalque party, but we’re making up for lost time because the unique music of this Hungarian band has been a cool discovery (you can see our first post about them here).  We knew that the band had recently signed with the dependable Season of Mist label, but this morning we got a message from Tamás Kátai with further details.

Specifically, the band seems to have finished 60 minutes worth of new music (10 songs) that will be released on November 11 in Europe and on January 10, 2012 in North America. It will be entitled Rengeteg, and you can see the cover art up above, which is the result of a collaboration between Tamás and Portuguese photographer Ruy Luz. The art seems connected to the meaning of the album’s title, which is an obsolete Hungarian word referring to a vast, trackless forest. We’ll be all ears when this album becomes available for listening.  (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

A LITTLE BIT OF THIS, A LITTLE BIT OF THAT

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Aug 142011
 

Just catching up on news here. But I’ll throw in some new music I heard this morning, too. The bands featured in this post: Thy Catafalque (again), Gire, Threat Signal, Solace, RedScream, and Deicide.

THY CATAFALQUE / GIRE

Just a few days ago, we posted a short feature that included this two-person band named Thy Catalfalque as a result of my first serious effort to get into their music — and man, have I gotten into it. I get more out of it the more I listen, like peeling back the proverbial onion, except without the watering eyes. To my good fortune, this led to a few e-mail exchanges with the band’s principle creative force, Tamás Kátai.

To date, Thy Catafalque have produced four albums and a demo, with a new album to be released in the future by Season of Mist. The last two albums (the ones I’ve been listening to) were released by Epidemie Records and have become a bit hard to find, at least if you want physical copies, though Epidemie will be re-releasing Róka Hasa Rádió on November 30, but this time in a jewel-case edition with an 8-page booklet (versus the original, nearly sold-out digipack version).

Thy Catafalque isn’t Tamás Kátai’s only musical project. He also handles keyboards, programming, lyrics, and more for another long-running Hungarian band called Gire, who have six demos to their credit plus a 2007 self-titled debut album (which features that eye-catching album cover above). The Gire debut album is also hard to find, but Tamás helpfully pointed out that it can be downloaded from this location — so, of course, I did that.

I’ve only just started listening, and I have a feeling that, as on the albums from Thy Catafalque, no one song on this album is going to tell you very much about the rest of them. But of the tracks I’ve heard so far,this is a mixture of eviscerating death metal, catastrophic sludge, industrial red-lining, and meteoric, experimental guitar extravaganza. I’m deadly serious. This is a stupendous head-check. (more after the jump . . . .) Continue reading »

IT’S ABOUT TIME: THY CATAFALQUE AND MITOCHONDRION

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  18 Responses »
Aug 112011
 

This morning I got two e-mails that reminded me about bands — Thy Catafalque (originally Hungary) and Mitochondrion (Canada) — that I’ve been meaning to say something about for a long time. So rather than procrastinate further, or worry about how many other bands I’ve been unjustly ignoring, I thought, wtf, might as well just do it now.

The first band is Thy Catafalque, who (as of last month) are now signed to the excellent Season of Mist label. I’ve seen this band’s name in various places, but most often at The Number of the Blog, where groverXIII is a big admirer of them (see this, for example). Although I’d forgotten about it, I finally remembered listening at one point long ago to a clip of one of their songs that he featured at TNOTB from their latest album, Róka Hasa Rádió, which was released in 2009. I didn’t fall in love with the song immediately, and therefore moved on to something else important, like picking lint out of my navel.

And then this morning, I got an e-mail from Tamás Kátai, who is the principle alter ego of Thy Catafalque (along with János Juhász) and now resides in Edinburgh, Scotland. He had seen my review of the excellent new album by another Hungarian band, Slytract, which included my confession of ignorance and curiosity about Hungarian metal. So he gave me links to two of Thy Catafalque’s albums — not only Róka Hasa Rádió, which is the fourth album, but also the third one, Tűnő Idő Tárlat (2004), which Tamás thought I might want because, unlike Róka Hasa Rádió, it contains no clean male vocals at all. I wonder why he thought that would matter to me?

Turns out that one of those download files also contained a video for a song called “Paths Untrodden”, which isn’t on either of the two most recent albums. Instead, it’s on the second release, Microcosmos (2001). Because I like moving pictures, and because I do most things ass-backwards, I watched that video before listening to anything else. It may very well not be representative of the band’s current musical direction, since it’s roughly 10 years old, but damn, it’s a fine, scathing black-metal song that has become firmly stuck in my head, and the video is beautiful — definitely worth sharing.  (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

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