Throne Of Katarsis - The Three Transcendental Keys Review

Earlier this year, I wrote a review about Throne Of Katarsis 2011' release "Ved Graven" that was an awesome album for every fan of old school black metal. Now, two years after the release of Ved Graven, the band gives birth to an other masterpiece entitled "The Three Trancendental Keys" released through Candlelight Records records on the 21st of October 2013.

The album is 50 minutes long and consists of only three songs, a song for each of the three transencental keys. It is a concept album, musically and lyrically. The whole album offers the listener a breathtaking atmosphere that you will not forget. The album has a real evil vibe and some may also call their genre depressive suicidal black metal because of this real sinister atmosphere that they create. Obviously, all three songs are very long and have several segments, for example fast blast beats and tremolo picked guitar riffing, but they have some slower atmospheric parts as well.

Listening to the songs, you feel like you are on a journey, experiencing several up/downs and mood changes. But the mood never gets positiv, in fact, if you listen closely you will sink in the melancholy of the songs and enjoy the good music created by this masterclass band. You will encounter beautiful melodies, fast blast beats, horrifying screams that scream like a victim on the bottom of hell for salvation, melancholic chords and so on. You have to listen three-four times to the album to discover all hidden elements and understand the music right.

The quality of the recordings got a little better than on the last release but it's still raw enough to remain "trve", if you know what I mean. Personally I think that the quality of the recording is a thing that gives the band even more musical darkness and feeling; it simply fits perfect to the music. The album cover is in the same style as their previous release "Ved Graven" and totally fits to the music as well.

"The Three Transcendantal Keys" is an album that you will listen from the beginning to the end. The tension never drops and the band managed to bring enough diversity to the songs so that they are not boring. If you think that this is an other band that just repeats three riffs for 15 minutes, you are wrong, because they don't (and this is a good thing) because you can see how talented they are by structuring their music so well and making it almost unique in the whole black metal scene.

Throne Of Katarsis' new release is not very different from what they did in the past, but the music definetly improved and they reached a new level of grimness and musical perfection. "The Three Transcendantal Keys" is an album for every fan of negative old school black metal with a dark atmosphere. Check it out!

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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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