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Catarsis Incarne - Katharma review



Reviewer:
6.0

4 users:
7.5
Band: Catarsis Incarne
Album: Katharma
Style: Death metal
Release date: August 13, 2011
A review by: wormdrink414


01. Falsos Hijos Del Sol
02. Yo Me Cree
03. Katharma 12 (Exhumacion De Abya Yala)
04. Insinuacion Insidiosa
05. A ABADtir
06. Condena
07. Subconsciente 1010011010
08. Ausencia Total De Materia

Generic death metal can be pretty fun, but a little uniqueness goes a long, long way. And, if anything, Katharma is a unique death metal album. But damn it, Catarsis Incarnae, this isn't 'Nam. This is death metal. There are rules. If your riffs are hardly ever rabid and maniacal-sounding, and the production is totally sterile, your audience among death metallers isn't one I can picture.

Katharma never really comes together and the genre-tampering on this ultimately feels half-assed. Sure, it has a number catchy and evil sounding riffs (listen to "Auscencia Total" and "Subconsciente 10001110101") and pretty savage vocals, but everything comes out sounding directionless and vacuous by the end. Either the stylistically unorthodox approach will kill songs before they can really get rolling, or the absurdly sanitized production will.

And that's a bummer. Like with so many other young, unsigned death metal groups, there's a lot of skill to be heard on this. And, icing on the top, doesn't seem like Catarsis set out to please the Neanderthal-lite death metal fans who fold their arms and scowl at shows when genre-staples aren't being tortured on stage--the "these guys don't sound like Deicide... man, fuck these guys" guys. But there just isn't enough meat on this album. Catarsis know how important riffs to make listeners want to sprint around with boar thighs and blunt weapons in their hands with death metal are, and they know the importance of being unique, but they didn't execute their shit very well on this. It just feels over-produced and over-planned by the end.





Written on 27.10.2011 by Wormdrink's real name is George and he's an American.


Comments

Comments: 8   Visited by: 104 users
27.10.2011 - 13:09
!J.O.O.E.!
Account deleted
Apparently it's 'Incarne' rather than 'Incarnae'
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27.10.2011 - 13:35
!J.O.O.E.!
Account deleted
Well if anything this band lacks originality, I don't quite see where this genre-tampering is. It's pretty straight up tech-death, albeit quite decent tech-death that manages not to be overly wanky. Kinda reminds me of Gorod. A strong 7 from me, perhaps even a 7.5 for its use of restraint, it's actually pretty good.

Great cover art too.
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27.10.2011 - 21:52
wormdrink414
Elite
Written by [user id=4365] on 27.10.2011 at 13:35

Well if anything this band lacks originality, I don't quite see where this genre-tampering is. It's pretty straight up tech-death, albeit quite decent tech-death that manages not to be overly wanky. Kinda reminds me of Gorod.

Hypothetically, if a reviewer were to take a tech death group's word that what they play is thrashy death metal, even when it's clearly tech death on their album, but somehow totally misses that during the two times he listens to it, is he a fuckwit? Hypothetically...

Seriously, I don't know how I botched that. It seems a lot more tampering-y if you insist on calling it plain death. But it's obviously tech... The occasional filler threw me off, but Ob(Servant) is one of my favorite tech albums and that thing is practically one third filler.

Stick by the overall argument though. The album has a number of good chunky bits, but just feels empty each time I finish it.
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27.10.2011 - 22:35
!J.O.O.E.!
Account deleted
Written by wormdrink414 on 27.10.2011 at 21:52

Hypothetically, if a reviewer were to take a tech death group's word that what they play is thrashy death metal, even when it's clearly tech death on their album, but somehow totally misses that during the two times he listens to it, is he a fuckwit? Hypothetically...

Seriously, I don't know how I botched that. It seems a lot more tampering-y if you insist on calling it plain death. But it's obviously tech... The occasional filler threw me off, but Ob(Servant) is one of my favorite tech albums and that thing is practically one third filler.

Stick by the overall argument though. The album has a number of good chunky bits, but just feels empty each time I finish it.

Not necessarily. I had to review a few bands I'd never heard of and who had practically no information on them, including description of their genre and I found extremely hard to decide on what it was, even when the answer was pretty obvious. Basically I'm saying you can know a lot of about metal and not always be able to pin down what they are, especially if you're reviewing it as there's additional pressure to critique and analyse it. Still though, this band doesn't sound like most tech-death bands, most of them are a-change-a-second tech nonsense so it'd be pretty easy to overlook the "tech" aspects of these guys. It is a sterile album that's for sure.
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27.10.2011 - 22:52
Troy Killjoy
perfunctionist
Staff
In spite of the low rating and everything negative you pointed out, I'm still curious about this one. :/

Who knows, maybe it's the cover art, which - as stated by JOOE - is some good stuff.
----
"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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27.10.2011 - 22:57
!J.O.O.E.!
Account deleted
Written by Troy Killjoy on 27.10.2011 at 22:52

In spite of the low rating and everything negative you pointed out, I'm still curious about this one. :/

Who knows, maybe it's the cover art, which - as stated by JOOE - is some good stuff.

Well I think it's pretty reminiscent of Gorod (before their last pants album) so you should give it a whirl.
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27.10.2011 - 23:01
Troy Killjoy
perfunctionist
Staff
Written by [user id=4365] on 27.10.2011 at 22:57
Well I think it's pretty reminiscent of Gorod (before their last pants album) so you should give it a whirl.

Nice!

(Also, I liked their last album. Not the EP, the full-length.)
----
"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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27.10.2011 - 23:02
!J.O.O.E.!
Account deleted
Written by Troy Killjoy on 27.10.2011 at 23:01

Written by [user id=4365] on 27.10.2011 at 22:57
Well I think it's pretty reminiscent of Gorod (before their last pants album) so you should give it a whirl.

Nice!

(Also, I liked their last album. Not the EP, the full-length.)

Meh, for me it was one of the bigger disappointments of the year. Haven't heard the EP though.
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