Band:	Thy Catafalque
Album:	Geometria
Style:	Avantgarde black metal
Release date:	May 04, 2018
A review by:	RaduP

01. Hajnali Csillag
02. Szamojéd Freskó
03. Töltés
04. Gőte
05. Sárember
06. Hajó
07. Lágyrész
08. Sík
09. Balra A Nap
10. Tenger, Tenger
11. Ének A Búzamezőkről

Avant-garde should ideally mean not doing the same thing twice. Thy Catafalque did get this memo. After the heavy and epic Meta, we are met with the more lush and diverse Geometria.

Thy Catafalque should be no stranger to fans of forward-thinking metal, leaving behind standard black metal compositions and, starting with Tűnő Idő Tárlat, diving into blends of avant-garde, electronics, Hungarian folk, and, yes, black metal. Ever since Sgùrr, Thy Catafalque has comprised solely mastermind Tamás Kátai. Despite this, there have always been plenty of collaborators, and such is the case on Geometria as well.

Among others you will find violin, saxophone, fretless bass, and trumpets, though the most prominent outside contributions are the vocals of Martina Veronika Horváth and Gyula Vasvári - more of the former, while the latter has also appeared on Meta. Already from the album's opener, "Hajnali Csillag", we can hear both Martina's vocals and Misha's violin. One odd thing about the song on first listen is that you'll hear electronics and layered synths and female vocals and violins and jazzy drums, but there isn't any heaviness at all. That only comes contrasting in "Szamojéd Freskó" which brings the frenetic black metal back into play. And then the electronic and almost EDM-ish "Töltés" takes it away. What is going on here?

Geometria is likely Thy Catafalque's least metal album. While the metal songs are really heavy and there's plenty of them, more than half of the album's tracks are more focused on sounds outside the metal spectrum, giving it a very diverse yet slightly disjointed feel, as instead of interplaying between the two in the same tracks, each track is given either a metal feel or a non-metal feel. Hence none of the tracks really push past the 8 minutes length. This doesn't work too much to Geometria's disfavour though, as it gives Thy Catafalque plenty of reasons to push forward the jazzier and almost dancier aspects of their music, without either abandoning the metal side or having to find ways to fuse it with the rest. And whereas the metal is clearly isolated in its own tracks, the flow of the album barely suffers as transitions are still smooth and the listener barely notices that it's almost like you're listening to another band.

The music itself is quite gorgeous, as the blend of the more electronic soundscapes, barely noticeably programmed drums, and the fairly big number of collaborators is seamless. Both the nonmetal and the metal sides of the album work to give the album its avant-garde feel, with complex structures and layering and effects and the Hungarian language which is, dare I say, not very melodic. While most of the songs are great and some feel a bit like filler, it is the opener and the closer that feel most complete, both being the only long songs on the album, and both being on opposites of the heaviness spectrum.

And if Thy Catafalque are to never do the same thing twice, I suppose we might expect an album that either drops the metal elements altogether or works to make the blend of metal and jazz natural. Or maybe something unexpected. Meanwhile.