Katharos introduces us to its new mischief.
Created in 2006 in Sweden, the band composed of Richard Annerhall (vocals/guitar, Repuked), Max Müssbichler (guitar, Repuked), Martin Müssbichler (bass), Christofer Sköld (keyboards, Mortifera) and Tatu Kerttula (drums, Wormwood, Neuronaut) is about to release Of Lineages Long Forgotten in 2022.
Robin “Rob the slob” Westlund (Repuked, ex-Godphobia) helped for backing vocals.
The album is opened with Those Hornclad and its introductive military march which drives us to a majestic and massive Black Metal. Old School ice-cold riffs are easily melted to weighing orchestrations and visceral howlings, then hooking melodies on Feigned Retreat come next with haunting sonorities. The rhythmic’s rage quickly surfaces again, and the aggressive blending unveils weighing, dissonant and mysterious tones. Softer elements are added to the abrasive riffs, creating an intense contrast which continues with Of Lineages Long Forgotten, the eponymous track, which places warlike strikes to begin. The rhythmic surfaces to enhance the melancholy which progressively comes to life into this seizing ambience and those fast riffs, which is appeased on the final before The World Serpent’s Marrow comes to make the storm reborn. Technical hints are put in the service of complex and epic melodies which strike until the very last moment to offer a solid sound, which ends with Lay Yersinian Siege and its worrying introduction. The uncompromising Black Metal will quickly resurface to complete the oppressive orchestrations, but melodies keep a very important place into the heady sound. Vocals’ intensity perfectly sticks to those waves of blackness, which will be more unhealthy on the songs’ final, before I Waged War comes to unveil a raw strength. The vocalist’s screams give an additional identity to killer riffs’ violence, melting burning Old School roots with an impressive mastery, then the album ends with Most Dread Portent, a haunting track with a very slow introduction. Fastness quickly comes back, but it also wears melancholic tones and a weighing atmosphere to close the album with a massive blackness.
My first contact with Katharos is very positive. Of Lineages Long Forgotten is only the band’s album, but it witnesses an incredible mastery as well as intensity, immediately creating a dark and weighing vortex which only authorizes a few quiet moments.
90/100