CD Review: Thy Catafalque, “Rengeteg”

I keep saying to myself that with the limited time I have these days to review music that I’m going to skip anything that’s not in English but then this Hungarian beast hits my inbox and I become a drooling fanboy.

Thy Catafalque are billed as “avant-garde metal” which can really be the only way to describe them. With a blend of hard, angry riffs, folk, pop, rock and electronics, Rengeteg catches the ear right away as something out of the ordinary. The one man project of TamÁ¡s KÁ¡tai really hits massively hard with this record and that’s during the slow parts! When he really rocks out, it’s a blistering wall of cranium bashing noise. The whole album is a jolt to the senses not only because he blends the styles almost flawlessly but switches them up when you’re least expecting it. He’ll build a somber sound-scape and then smash it down with the claws of death. He’ll lull you into a state of relaxation and then shake your insides with fierce riffage. He’ll make you dance a jig with a pint in each hand and then force you to throw those pints at the nearest piece of glass. Get the point yet?

I must send out the warning however, that it may take a couple listens to figure it out. I’ve been sitting on this album for more than a month now and only after the 8th listen could I figure out what I wanted to say about it. No worries though, it’s not one of those albums that you hate at first but grows on you over time instead being thoroughly enjoyable from the first note you listen to but so complex that you need the extra time to digest it.

The 14+ minute “Vashegyek” is the centerpiece of this masterful record. It begins with this soft folk passage led by the beautiful voice of Ágnes TÁ³th. KÁ¡tai slowly builds up the rock underneath it until he completely peels back the layers and reveals a wall of almost black metal noise. This process continues for the length of the song also utilizing the clean male vocals of Attila Bakos throughout.

Rengeteg is a  stunning mix of sounds and really makes you wonder why you don’t hear music this good all the time. Dig it up on Season of Mist records on 11/11/11, spin it a few times and let greatness overwhelm you.

“Fekete mezÅ‘k”
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