The first conclusion of this review will also be the very last: this is an amazing album. Now, after it is loud out in the open, I shall explain why this massive piece marked with the sign of gods.
Firstly, surfing through the all the cover corners, I have had an old feeling clenching me. The children appear in the photos made me wish it had something to do with innocence of childhood and the Tabula Rasa of first times in music spheres – a sensation hard to restore when getting older and somehow tired of open yourself entirely to new tunes with stretching naïve arms forward. Hence, the exquisite rush of TC, touched heavily with industrialized manners in breathing and desolate scenes, keeps those children nearby, as if they stand outside the fence, staring with their ears and listening with their eyes.
An immediate impression of the music is an instant bewitching throughout an hour-long tour de force of grey magic and bright innovations. For this music holds a spear shaped as heart and it is so easy to tackle with the blade every sort of withering emotions and sharp senses of identifying the act of leaving shackles and borders far behind, what we call, avantgarde metal. The head of the spear are the guitars, alongside the different ambience instruments (Synth, moog, female vocals), branded with generous portions of dynamism and sparkles: once turning majestic as the colorful background artifacts begin to dance along a haunting melodies, or they serve as another garment to highlight mastermind’s Tamas Katai haunting and Attila Bakos’ Garm-ish vocals and occasionally they are marching with heads high to a semi-classic black metal horn. A vital part in the heavy clouded atmosphere of the album reveals every time as the curtain falls and the gloomy decorations takes the lead: prance to sharp icy-cold Glitch samples, frolic along mid-paced Jungle beat and overall resuscitate the hidden mystical Eastern Europe. The very Europe of vast plains and magic clouds, where gypsies moving their estates wherever the music leads them. It is not surprising that the band creates from the heart of Hungary, where large parts of the folk music is traditionally influenced by gypsy tunes. Moreover, without being labeled as folk metal band, they manage to deliver a snippet Hungarian essence through delicate use in melodies and female vocals.
The second song, a 20-minutes epos bearing the teeth-shattering name “Molekularis Gepezetek”, is the purest form of CT’s complex and multi-layered art. It has, well, everything: freezing black metal riffs, prograssive bass lines from the desk of Death’s “Human”, changing rhythms as if metal and electronics were marketing their eternal brotherhood (hence this website share a huge respect to the ones who crossed the barriers of true assimilation, and still do), folk-ish moments courtesy of tender sirens a-la a quite golden afternoon in the great Hungarian plains. As if it is not enough, this highly intensive song contains also a bow to space-engineers Arcturus, salute to mad puppeteers Angizia, and nod to eternal wolves Ulver and whoever made a clear path for this fantastic album rise to life. A sincere influence of those mentions above is the electronic use of elements, which is spectacular and immaculate, as if to give quick lessons in mapping sub-genres and their capacities to enrich the cauldron.
A measure to greatness of an album lies in the language hurdle. I do not understand Hungarian, but even though, I still sense everything firing underneath, for I firmly believe that the listener’s role in interpret music is even bigger when it comes to foreign languages and the more the music is innovative and capturing, the more the imagination enriches and a whole new language created in one’s mind. As the name hints, this is a radio station, cramped into one album. One can say this is humankind’s radio, sharing and blending worlds beyond worlds of sounds, each upon each and altogether, shuffling and mixing flawlessly and freely. Yet this allegedly chaos, one can feel how it is well crafted, as if every musician in this recording gave all he ever bare (trivia-blitz: the other members of Katai’s disbanded Gire, Balazs Hermann and Zoltan Konya, contribute bass and guitars and bring a bit of the Gire spirit).
To resonance my earlier conclusion and to sum it, this album is indeed so rich and is a saucerful of secrets and therefore, one should explore it with hunger and patience, for this is a hidden treasure and I certainly hope that this review will encourage listening to a unique band.
– Jobst
VITALS:
Release: 2009
Label: Epidemie Records
Avantgenre: A Saucerful Of Secrets
Duration: 68:12
Origin: Hungary
Official site: http://thycatafalque.hu
Review online since: 03.07.2009 / 20:35:13
TRACKLIST:
01 – Szervetlen
02 – Molekularis Gepezetek
03 – Köd Utanam
04 – Ürhajok Makon
05 – Piroshatu
06 – Esölampas
07 – Kabocak, Bodobacsok
08 – Öszi Varazslok
09 – Feher Berek
Leave a Reply