Album Review : Thy Catafalque - Alföld (2023)
One thing I really like about Tamás Kátai is that he doesn't look anything like your typical metalhead. He doesn't even look like he's from this century on the majority of photos he appears on. If Neige, from Alcest showed me a photo of Kátai and told me he was his long lost hungarian great-grandfather, I would believe him. An artistic weirdo like this can only make the oddest, most fun and unpredictable music and the new release from his solo avant-garde metal Thy Catafalque Alföld is perhaps his best one yet.
The music of Thy Catafalque widely eludes description, but "artsy, conceptual post-black metal" is in the ballpark of what it sounds like. What makes him so much fun is that he's artsy without being techy and proggy, so he writes songs that actually sound good even if they’re not always complex or difficult to play. Alföld's opener A csend hegyei (Mountains of Silence) Tamás Kátai uses chunky, groovy riffs in order to create a sense of scope and tremolo picking that cuts through the sonic thickness like a knife.
It uses familiar metal elements in new and exciting ways:
Testen Túl (On the Body) swerves into a whole other direction. It starts with mid-tempo bass and drum before transitioning into a FUN rock riff with Kátai shrieking vocals in a much higher pitch. Then it turns into a black metal song and then into a souped up rock song again. I have no idea what the lyrics are about, but there's strong sense of storytelling. Thy Catafalque's music was always highly evocative, but Testen Túl cycles segments like the chorus of a classic Greek theatre play. It’s a fun song.
Speaking of fun, my favourite song on Alföld is the follow-up A földdel egyenlö (Level to the ground). It's an explosive number that combines chuggy riffs and tremolo picking to create an audio storm where keyboard and solo bass sections sometimes peak through. It transitions into these almost Megadeth-like riffs with hints of melody, electronic elements and clean harmonies because why the fuck not? I felt all my metal memories swirling around me. It's a beautiful, peculiar experience each time.
The title song (Lowlands) is more of a straightforward death metal song with muscular riffs and something that sounds like Viking horns? It's muscular, tormented and oddly atmospheric? I mean, an atmosphere of violence and torment is still an atmosphere, am I right? It’s the longest song on Alföld at nine minutes, so it has its fair share of surprise like a beautiful operatic segment performed by a female singer and an ending that could be played at a renaissance fair. Power and beauty coexist in harmony on this record.
The instrumental Folyondár (Stream) hits you right off the bat with a string section and flutes. It drifts really far off metal. Even the spare guitar riffs are more rock oriented. It breaks into a keyboards and drum/bass halfway through, but it never feels weird or off-putting. Each creative choice on this record is connected to this idea of grandeur and awe. It's intuitive and accessible. Thy Catafalque makes a quite advanced form of metal, but it's cinematic enough to be appreciated even by people unfamiliar with the genre.
Csillagot Görgetö (Falling Star) reminded me of Bathory and one of my favourite viking metal bands Falkenbach with the clean, elegiac singing. The idea of territory and origins is super important on Alföld, but I think this song is Tamás Kátai connecting with his musical origins in his quirky, Hungarian way. A Felkelö Hold Országa (Land of the Rising Moon) is, mostly, a melodic black metal song. It’s not bad, but it feels a little flat for such a colourful and cinematic record.
Szíriusz (Sirius) is a cosmic interlude reminiscent of Dimmu Borgir's Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia that serves as a segue into the closer Néma vermek (Silent Beat), an odd industrial rock/prog metal number performed in spoken word that features theremin and other weird shit. It’s so fucking serious that my man Kátai shovels dirt in the video because HUNGARIAN FARMER WEIRDO METAL, BRO. FUCK YEAH. Néma vermek is my other favorite song on Alföld. It beams with passion and pride.
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There's no music quite like Thy Catafalque out there. It's such a personal and idiosyncratic project. So many metal bands operate within the same creative parameters, but Tamás Kátai breaks them open in order to achieve that strong, intimate creative vision that drives him and he nailed it on Alföld. This is not just a string of songs. It’s a conceptual journey through the Hungarian heritage of a man who's just returned to his country after spending much of his adult life aboard. A splendid work of art.
