ALBUM REVIEW: Terra Mortuus Est – Katalepsy
Since forming in 2004, Russia’s KATALEPSY have been one of the more prominent and respected names in the death metal underworld. Their potency for aural annihilation is undisputed and despite tinkering with their initial slam blueprint to incorporate more of extreme music’s various stylings over the course of the career, to this day, the band stand strong. Four years have passed since 2016’s Gravenous Hour and now comes Terra Mortuus Est, an album that intends to reaffirm KATALEPSY‘s place amongst the elite in death metal. But does it deliver the goods?
If you can take one thing away from Terra Mortuus Est, it’s this. This is an album that intends to take no prisoners. Across the eleven songs on offer here, KATALEPSY are out for blood and their potency for brutality can be utterly exhilarating. Opener Closer Than Flesh sets a strong opening gambit as slamming riffs combine with splashes of technical experimentation, copious amounts of blasts from Andrey Patsionov and a roaring vocal display from Igor Filimontsev ensures that the album gets off to the best possible start.
KATALEPSY have always had a tendency to blur the boundaries of extreme metal’s extreme sub-genres and Terra Mortuus Est very much continues this tradition. This is a multi-faceted monster of a record, one which pulls from a variety of musical characteristics to obliterate the listener. The one-two punch of Night of Eden and Those Who Rot The Souls, two of the strongest songs on the album, lean heavily on slick grooves and an almost hardcore identity to ensure that the adrenaline surges, gut-punching riffing on Kings Of The Underground or the low guttural vocal snarls that are sparingly deployed across the record show that the band have not forgotten their roots that made them such a hit in the slam scene.
The God of Grave and the frantic intro to Deep Down Madness could sit comfortably on a strictly tech-death album thanks to the flurry of mind-bending guitar work that really helps the track come into its own. Final track, Land of Million Crosses comes completely out of left field, showcasing a side to KATALEPSY we’ve rarely heard before. Here, the band deploy ambient keyboards and an unorthodox sense of melody to help the track really stand out. It opens the door to an avenue the band have yet to explore, and it’s hard to not get excited by it.
And yet, for all that Terra Mortuss Est does well, the record does have its shortcomings, issues which rear their head and detract from the overarching quality that is on offer here. Despite all the variations between brutal death metal, tech death and groove, and the very fact that each song on the record follows a rather similar pattern and presentation, Terra Mortuss Est feels bloated. Standing at eleven songs, the album unfortunately gets bogged down in its own carnage. Later numbers such as No Rest No Peace or From The Dark Past (They Come) are fine songs on their individual merits, but in the context of an album, it feels like KATALEPSY are rinsing and repeating their formula. It makes the later stages of Terra Mortuss Est feel a slog and dampens the lasting impact of the most experimental song on the record; finale Land of Million Crosses. With some trimming of the fat, KATALEPSY would have made a much more precise and calculated impact.
For those of you who like your metal as brutal and extreme as it gets, you’ll find a lot to love with Terra Mortuss Est. KATALEPSY pick up where Gravenous Hour left off and proceed to bludgeon you to within one inch of your life. At times, the band’s potency for brutality is exhilarating. And whilst the record certainly has its shortcomings and suffers from a degree of bloated over-packing, there is no doubting that Terra Mortuss Est is another solid outing from the Russian extremists.
Rating: 7/10
Terra Mortuus Est is set for release on July 31st via Unique Leader Records.
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