With XII: A gyönyörű álmok ezután jönnek, Hungarian avant-garde metal act Thy Catafalque create a kaleidoscopic tapestry of anthemic melodies, rich instrumentation, reflectiveness, and thunderous power.
Tamás Kátai (band leader, founder, and sole constant) is not one to be held back by genre limitations and conventions.
Having cut his teeth in extreme metal groups, the multi-instrumentalist has taken Thy Catafalque from a more overtly black-metal entity into its form on the band’s latest record where just about anything seems possible.
On opening track alone, “Piros Kocsi, Fekete Éj”, the listener is already treated to glistening guitar arpeggios, a sonic wave of propulsive alternative rock, symphonic arrangements, an impassioned lead vocal performance, courtesy of Attila Bakos (earwormy even if you don’t speak Hungarian!), heavy metal passages and little prog-rock breaks.
It’s all handled with grace and finesse, something which can be said of the record in its entirety. So while on the surface, it might sound difficult to make black metal, Hellenic folk music and post-punk motifs naturally flow from one sequence into the next every successive listen to the album makes such transitions seem perfectly natural.
In their current (relatively infrequent) live configuration, the band feature eight members, but with all the instrumental flourishes peppered through the record (including clarinet, violin, trumpet, and bouzouki) the number of players on XII reaches almost 30.
Often, these instruments and players appear only once, adding richness and texture—like the great saxophone bursts on the moody, Killing Joke evoking “Nyárfa, Nyírfa” or the French horn, and electric cello built into the light/dark dichotomy of “Ködkiraly.”
On the latter track beautiful, layered female vocals and light electro beats (like some kind of late 90s post club chill out music) transitions into a chugging doom metal in the vein of late Celtic Frost.
Every one of the album’s 10 tracks (digital copies featuring the bonus Omega cover “Babylon”) is exquisite in its construction and realization and with every successive listen, the album becomes more seductive and ultimately irresistible.
XII: A gyönyörű álmok ezután jönnek is a feast for the ears, a celebration of the power of music, bursting to express itself in whatever form it chooses to inhabit. An album to inexorably fall in love with.
