Katalepsy: The Future of Our Dying Race

The United States, much of mainland Europe, the UK, Australia and even South America are all bastions of heavy music. Finland famously has more metal bands per capita than any other country, while Great Britain is the birthplace of heavy metal, America spawned thrash metal, the Germans perfected it and the Scandinavian nations hold world records for extreme metal in all its forms. But to the east, far past what little remains of the Iron Curtain, there is a Russian scene of unparalleled brutality that may be one of the fastest rising metal scenes in the world – and leading the charge are Moskvich quintet KATALEPSY, set to cement their place in the international brutal death metal scene with their brand new album, Terra Mortuus Est.

KATALEPSY, led by guitarist and bassist Anton Garasiyev and Anatoly Shishilov, respectively, have spent much of the last decade absolutely annihilating the Russian metal scene with a brand of hyper-technical, ultra-brutal death metal. But while their last record, Gravenous Hour was heavy on the technicality, and their debut, Autopsychosis , was a modern behemoth of slam, Terra Mortuus Est is a different beast, rawer and groovier with an old-school edge from start to finish. 

“We didn’t make the stylistic move on purpose,” Garasiyev explains on the sonic palette of Terra Mortuus Est. “But I guess we made an album that sounds more raw, more brutal and less technical than our last record. With Gravenous Hour, we were trying to make it as technical as possible. This time, we were a bit more relaxed on the technical side, but we turned more to the brutality. It is what it is.”

It’s clear there’s already been a series of huge stylistic shifts in KATALEPSY’s career, from the rather generic slam of their early recordings, to the brutal tech-death of Gravenous Hour until now, with the old-school grooves and HATE ETERNAL or NILE inspired chaos of Terra Mortuus Est. So with such a vast evolutionary turn over a relatively short number of records, what’s next for the Muscovites, following on from the new record? 

“When you take us at any moment in time, perhaps we’ll say something different. But at the moment, we are absolutely satisfied with the sound and style of the new record.” Garasiyev states. “Terra Mortuus Est is both brutal and technical, but we made it sound pretty raw, pretty dark, with good lyrics. This isn’t just another record. KATALEPSY doesn’t release music very often, so we want to do something different every time, we want to deliver a high quality album every time. I hope we will keep moving in this direction for the next few years, though.” 

Garasiyev has every reason to be proud of Terra Mortuus Est. Not only is it a record that will doubtlessly expand the Russian’s sphere of influence beyond those who need riffs played on strings as thick as rope and gutturals deeper than the Mariana Trench, it is an album that is destined to solidify KATALEPSY as one of the frontrunners of the brutal death metal scene. And while sonically the band continue to evolve, thematically, they are as far removed from the majority of the scene as ever. 

Slam and brutal death metal are genres marred by misogyny, lyrics telling sickening blow by blows of rape and murder being commonplace and widely just seen as part of the accepted vocabulary of the style. But KATALEPSY offer something far removed from this genre trope, a thematic niche all too familiar to fans of death metal at large, but a refreshing change of pace in the intense brutality of the slam scene: Lovecraft, and cosmic horror as a whole. 

“KATALEPSY is not just a heavy sounding machine, it’s not only about riffs and words pronounced in a scary manner. We care about the lyrics too, and they are all united by these dark and mysterious ideas.” Garasiyev  explains, finishing with a dry laugh. “Our lyrics are mysterious things, not to be revealed with words.”

Terra Mortuus Est aside, it’s almost impossible to talk with a musician of some renown in Russia without touching on the growing Russian metal scene. And like all the best metal scenes across the genre’s history, despite the geographic challenges, the Russian brutal death metal scene has a sense of unity. 

“The brutal death metal scene is pretty unified in Russia because the community is pretty small. There are few cities in Russia, and the cities are far from each other, but we have some communities across the country.” Garasiyev states. 

While there is no arguing that brutality is the key currency in the Russian death metal scene, KATALEPSY’s unique blend of groove, slam and technicality, all wrapped in a Lovecraftian mask of pure cosmic horror offers a refreshing take on the scene. Geographic challenges aside, Terra Mortuus Est is ironclad proof that when KATALEPSY arise from the east, there’s no stopping their red tide in the domination of the death metal scene. 

Terra Mortuus Est is out now via Unique Leader Records.

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