Thy Catafalque - Rengeteg (Season of Mist)
Season of Mist always seem to be signing bands from obscure parts of the world, be it Mar de Grises from Chile, or Silent Stream of Godless Elergy from the Czech Repubilc. Joining the latter from the Eastern Bloc is Thy Catafalque, which orginates from Hungary.
Rengeteg starts off promisingly enough with Fekete Mezok, a nice slice of death metal, with some melodic vocals that kind of remind one of Swiss band Eluveitie. Though Thy Catafalque might have started life as a black metal band, main man - and who appears to be the only man these days - Tamas Katal, seems to have drifted the band off into more avant-garde territory, adding programmed atmospherics to the bands songs.
In fact, with Tamas being the sole originator behind the bands latest, he handles all vocals, guitar and bass, along with keyboards and programs, himself. While certyainly a daunting task for most musicians, Tamas seems to handle things with great aplomb.
Songs like the epic Vashegyek - standing at just over fourteen minutes - and Krek Ingem Lobogo add subtle programming at the beginning of each song, before morphing into something fuller, in contrast to Minden Test Ful, which is a more blackened metal assault, complete with rasping vocals.
The production of Rengeteg is quite good overall, though some parts of the snare drum sound terribly 'tinny', similar to Metallica's St Anger album.
Like our upcoming review of Smohalla, we are not sure how hardcore black metal fans will react to Thy Catafalque's programming, as it is certainly not something that is going to appeal to everyone. Hats off to the band for trying something a little different though, as we are sure that there is still probably a following out there for Thy Catafalque, and it will be interesting to see what the band deliver in the near future.
