THY CATAFALQUE — Alföld (review)

Album · 2023 · Avant-garde Metal

4/5 · 2023-07-16
siLLy puPPy

The brainchild of Tamás Kátai,THY CATALFALQUE has been cranking out one amorphously mysterious album after another since 1999 with each release shapeshifting into something completely new and unexpected. While launching the band in the spirit of second black wave metal with the debut release “Sublunary Tragedies,” THY CATALFALQUE quickly broke the mold of sticking to any orthodoxies and instead was steered into a world of its own making. Nearly a quarter of a century later, Kátai is back with THY CATALFALQUE’s 11th release ALFÖLD, Hungarian for “lowlands” and is depicted on the album cover art which happens to be the terrain from where Kátai spawned and developed his most bizarre mix of black metal, progressive rock, experimental electronica and Hungarian folk music.

In recent years THY CATALFALQUE has been very close to jettisoning its black metal roots altogether with more focus on the Hungarian folk melodies and progressive rock gently teased into the world of metal through the classic distorting riffing and occasional growling vocals but ALFÖLD opens immediately with a return to the world of black metal with the track “A Csend Hegyei” harkening back to the earliest days of the band’s inception. But of course it wouldn’t be a proper modern THY CATALFALQUE if the album didn’t start to zigzag in various directions creating a bizarre tension between competing factions that somehow walk the tightrope act together and in the end perform a stunning circus act unlike any other in the entire metal-verse. This newest release does so with seeming ease.

At a classic album’s running time of 43 1/2 minutes and 9 tracks, ALFÖLD delivers the perfect THY CATALFALQUE recipe of mixing its black metal bombast with the expect folk music and electronic wizardry. At this point Kátai is a cult hero and has attracted a loyal following as well as the respect of many musicians who admire his work. While still the primary writer as well as guitarist, bassist, keyboardist and vocalist, Kátai has employed the talents of 13 guest musicians for the entire album with another 11 making cameos on only one or two tracks. Even though the black metal elements have always been present, on the last few albums the growly vocals have diminished giving the albums a more folk dominant feel but on ALFÖLD the raspy metal rampage is back in full vengeance. That’s not to say there aren’t plenty of those softer moments with subdued guitars and clean vocals but there is definitely a more upbeat kick ass feel to this album as opposed to anything of recent years.

What amazes me about THY CATALFALQUE is the consistency in creative reworkings of an established sound but always slightly askew so that it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what’s different. Kátai’s oft angular compositional writing skills are laced with comprehensible grooves but the contrapuntal effects of the electronica and vocal parts often sound startlingly off yet somehow complement each other perfectly. There is no sign of THY CATALFALQUE losing any steam with ALFÖLD and in fact it sounds like this collective has gotten a new burst of energy as it creates one of the heaviest and metal sounding albums in years. As with all albums since 2004’s “Tűnő idő tárlat,” the lyrics are entirely in Hungarian which continues to give this band an even stranger alienating sound since Hungarian is not even a Indo-European language with absolutely no similarities to virtually any other language. Another winner for THY CATALFALQUE. Longevity is apparent with this top act.