Throne Of Katarsis - Ved Graven Review

I am a very big fan of raw black metal and I love all black metal bands from Norway like Mayhem, Burzum, Gorgoroth and Immortal. I really love that cold atmosphere in the music and the the raw production. I was in search for a black metal band that makes music in a melancholic and scary mood, and this masterpiece is what I found:

Throne Of Katarsis, Ved Graven (eng. "At The Grave") released in 2011 through Candlelight Records, a fantastic full-length album.

The album begins with some really confusing and mysterios/scary guitars tones and after only 20 seconds the lead guitar comes in, a riff build in a standard black metal format, dirty minor chords, tremolo picked at a high tempo. You can imagine what comes as next... fast and really tight blast beats. The first scream of the singer and frontman of the band can be heared after one minute of furious blast beats. His voice can be described as scream or high growl and this is the only technique used. Sometimes it also variates and that high harsh growl becomes darker. The voice is typical for black metal, a powerfull voice full of pain and anger, of hate and desperation and of regret and sorrow. I really like the lyrics and that they are full of blasphemy. Used topics in the lyrics are like usual ( for ToK standards) satanism, death and nature and as you can read from the song titles, the lyrics are on norwegian and english. Sick lyrics, check them out !

These characteristics for the first track of the album also fit to the other tracks, they all fit together and have this evil feeling that I love. On the album you can find fast and slow songs, really agressive ones or slow melancholic depressive ones; everything what the heart of a black metal fan needs.

I will try to describe the music and the sound more precise: This is defenetly nothing totally new in the black metal scene, don't expect the best black metal release of the decade but it is one of the best releases of 2011. The music was mixed very well, the bass is present and I really love the way it sounds on this album . It is also not always following the guitar, it also plays own variations and melodys at some points.The drums are played tight as I said and they are variated and dynamic, a very good studio drummer. The guitar tone is raw and it has much gain and "highs" in it and not really much bass. It is something between heavy crunch and extreme distortion; it fits very well.

In the end, the cover artwork makes this album perfect and I would recommend this to all "true" black metal fans, you cn't go wrong with Throne Of Katarsis! Check them out!

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