ALBUM REVIEW: Alföld – Thy Catafalque
Although the band have been active for just over 25 years now, Hungary’s THY CATAFALQUE have only recently begun to get the sort of wider recognition and acclaim that they deserve, with their 2020 album Naiv proving to be one of the year’s musical highlights, and with the equally magnificent Vadak following it up a little over a year later – another record that possessed a broad and expansive scope that made it all the more impressive. Despite having only one permanent member, the band have managed to create a powerful and eclectic sound that is very hard to pin down to a single genre, taking in the intensity of extreme metal as well as elements of folk, electronic music and even prog rock, meaning that no one album sounds the same as its predecessors. The band’s latest, eleventh album, Alföld, is another fantastic blend of aggression and atmosphere, providing yet another stunning chapter in a body of work that only seems to get more impressive and all-encompassing as time passes.
A Csend Hegyei, with its chunky guitars and bellowing gutturals, is a solid, intense death metal track that makes for a powerful, domineering start to the record, providing a meaty sound that is at odds with the sort of sound this band are known for, with only a few lighter, melodic touches hinting at the progressive sound to come. Testen Túl has a steady pace and rumbling bass sound, and retains the harsh vocals and dense guitar tone of the preceding track, but proves to be more adventurous with its hooks, making it as punchy as it is punishing at points.
A Földdel Egyenlő is an energetic slab of blackened death metal with lots of sudden tempo changes, majestic clean vocals, ethereal synth and fretless bass alongside the discordant aggression, exploring the band’s heavier and more experimental sides simultaneously. Alföld serves as the album’s lengthiest number and sees the monolithic guitars that featured on the opener utilised more effectively, providing a weighty backbone around which soaring leads, throaty growls and haunting ambience are expertly moulded. It combines black and death metal with grandiose avant-garde flourishes, making this incredibly ambitious piece of music one of the album’s earliest high points.
Folyondár has an electronic undercurrent that manages to incorporate contrabass, bombastic keyboards, violins and flutes, giving this a futuristic yet folky quality that sounds excellent as the band lean prominently into their experimental side. Csillagot Görgető, with its sonorous chanted vocals and slick guitar work, is another polished and punchy affair, with the cavernous vocals and magnificent music that accompanies them serving as a powerful and infectiously catchy track with an underlying progressive edge.
A Felkelő Hold Országa returns to the darker blackened sound, with denser guitars, jarring riffs and arid, tortured vocals, gradually shifting towards a dancing, sharper sound that provides an imaginative take on a classic formula. Szíriusz, a short instrumental piece built around spacey keyboards and spartan guitar work, is a great segue into the album’s final song Néma Vermek, a track that carries forward this haunting keyboard sound and pairs it with thick guitars, dramatic vocals and light, intricate melodies that help adds a catchiness into the mix that cuts through the more belligerent undercurrent, bringing this album to a close in an impactful and memorable way.
With Alföld, Tamás Kátai has managed to craft an immersive and exceptional piece of avant-garde extreme metal that, like each of the ten albums that preceded it, incorporates a plethora of styles into one place without it feeling forced. As on each album, the addition of several guest vocalists and musicians elevates the music further, adding distinct elements to the sound that make Kátai‘s already brilliant compositions come alive, making each of these nine songs feel powerful and engrossing in their own right whilst contributing to the album as a cohesive whole. Even 11 albums in, THY CATAFALQUE are showing no signs of running out of momentum any time soon, and if their next album is as impressive as this one, that trend is only set to continue.
Rating: 9/10
Alföld is out now via Season Of Mist.
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