Catacombe - Kinetic
Catacombe is one of those bands who are good at making heavy metal hypnotic. Along the lines of other bands such as Pelican, Red Sparrows, and Russian Circles, much of their entire debut album, 'Kinetic,' is instrumental. Usually the music will go from melodic to atmospherically dooming and depressing, but overall there is a real sense of skill and entrancing tone to the guitars along with the drums which plod along. Take the first track for example- "Grundsatz." Despite its repetitive nature, the entire haunting quality is downright astounding, and like many of the other tracks, would only be distorted and distracted if any vocals were involved. On the other hand, a track like "Anna-Liisa" is a bit more progressive and psychedelic with the keyboards and samples looped in with an eerie backing loop that is sure to be a mindtrip if not listening to this album soberly.
"Memoirs" is a repeated, extended track from their first EP, and starts out just as haunting as the opening track, but builds up to a more energetic and abounding crescendo before falling back into the more simplistic, but hypnotic chords. Again, what Catacombe does best is hook listeners with the melodies and then just hold them in place by keeping the atmosphere of the music varied enough. Compared to the original, "Memoirs" is just a bit longer, but only keeps the progressive atmosphere going overall. "Cavalgada Epic" is a mix of heavy, sludgy doom and then all of a sudden breaks for a jazzy, progressive second half of the song that brings back that enrapturing style heard so far. "Mockba" keeps things heavy, but eventually leads for a momentary drum solo while letting the guitars play repetitive lines, but for once it seems like the bass gets a key role before the chords start hammering in again. "Sequoia" is almost a happy track with how the guitar notes sound, which betrays the nature of the more depressive, hypnotic nature of the other tracks, but once the music starts building up for the thick, rumbling sound of everything being played in unison rather off each other, it shakes off happy for a more epic feel.
Still, while this whole album is not necessarily 'epic,' - it barely clocks to 40 minutes- Catacombe prove one doesn't have to have a long track to create a grand sense of atmosphere. A lot of metal fans may get bored when it comes to 'atmospheric post metal' due to being 'repeated out' for such a long time, but the only real track that is epic is "Memoirs." The rest of the album keeps to an easy going pace that is neither too long or short. 'Kinetic' may not be trigger happy on the technical side, but all that is here is musical skill, and it is both mystical and magnificent.
"Memoirs" is a repeated, extended track from their first EP, and starts out just as haunting as the opening track, but builds up to a more energetic and abounding crescendo before falling back into the more simplistic, but hypnotic chords. Again, what Catacombe does best is hook listeners with the melodies and then just hold them in place by keeping the atmosphere of the music varied enough. Compared to the original, "Memoirs" is just a bit longer, but only keeps the progressive atmosphere going overall. "Cavalgada Epic" is a mix of heavy, sludgy doom and then all of a sudden breaks for a jazzy, progressive second half of the song that brings back that enrapturing style heard so far. "Mockba" keeps things heavy, but eventually leads for a momentary drum solo while letting the guitars play repetitive lines, but for once it seems like the bass gets a key role before the chords start hammering in again. "Sequoia" is almost a happy track with how the guitar notes sound, which betrays the nature of the more depressive, hypnotic nature of the other tracks, but once the music starts building up for the thick, rumbling sound of everything being played in unison rather off each other, it shakes off happy for a more epic feel.
Still, while this whole album is not necessarily 'epic,' - it barely clocks to 40 minutes- Catacombe prove one doesn't have to have a long track to create a grand sense of atmosphere. A lot of metal fans may get bored when it comes to 'atmospheric post metal' due to being 'repeated out' for such a long time, but the only real track that is epic is "Memoirs." The rest of the album keeps to an easy going pace that is neither too long or short. 'Kinetic' may not be trigger happy on the technical side, but all that is here is musical skill, and it is both mystical and magnificent.
- Grundsatz
- Supernova
- Ana-Liisa
- Memoirs
- Cavalgada Epica
- Mockba
- Sequoia
Label: http://slowburn.ru
Reviewer: Colin McNamara
Mar 18, 2011
Mar 18, 2011
Next review:
Assassin - Breaking The Silence
Share this:
