Kruzifixxion

After three long years and a series of splits the second Katharsis full-length album came out, titled “Kruzifixxion”. Compared to their first very interesting work, the German trio makes steady steps of progress, walking into even darker and gloomier paths. To be honest, at first I felt a bit confused but as the listens went by, the greatness of this record became perfectly clear to me.

First of all, it would be a huge omission not to refer to the album’s cover. It is a creation of Jon Thorns and truly is one of the best and most fitting black metal covers I have ever seen. Regarding the musical part, we are dealing with a record that consists of tracks with relatively long duration, with the exception of “Luziferion” that lasts just under 3 minutes. The record’s flow is often interrupted by interludes that add an eerie and anguished tone. Despite their length, the compositions are perfectly structured, with slow ceremonial parts and fast outbreaks exactly at the points they should be. Guitar with its familiar thin sound fills the speakers and creates a mind-blowing atmosphere, combined with the firm and strong drumming. Bass accompanies the melodies excellently, while the vocals have some very interesting elements. They reverberate from the back, ugly and evil, while sparsely some high-pitched vocals can be heard, adding even more tension to the listening process.

As for production, it is a little worse compared to that of “666” but this is not bad at all, since I believe it actually perfects an already great album. Another fundamental element of this work are the lyrics. I always found the lyrics of Katharsis very appealing but especially in this case they have a satanic religious reverence. Drakh preaches his hymns with such passion that gives the album an almost apocalyptic aspect.

By the time I reached the end of this release, I felt awe about the result Katharsis managed to create. These Germans are one of the bands that really take black metal to another dimension without having to play something innovative or avant-garde. They are simply led by devotion and zeal for the dark arts, and usually this is all that is needed after all. Do not let this masterpiece slip from your attention.

Originally written for: The Lair of Storfeth

"Kruzifixxion" was the second release for Katharsis and the first for the French label Norma Evangelium Diaboli. The band's style involves loads of rapid-fire blast beats, whining chainsaw tremolo guitars and extremely harsh and unearthly screaming that makes your own throat feel sore to say nothing of what the vocalist himself must have felt! The music is very raw to the point of bleeding and the melodies sound sinister enough though with "better" (as in technically more muddy noisy) production and the "right" atmosphere (deep and dark with a bit of echo) they could have sounded even more evil and aggressive.

Track 5 "The Chosen One" has some of the best melodies on the album and the band does right in keeping this song fairly minimal with the speed and most variation bunched up in the middle: the ending is majestic with a hint of keyboards behind the steaming guitars as befits the Faustian pact entered into. As we may expect, Katharsis bang on about praising Satan and entering into alliance with Him and His legions. There are cliched heavy metal references such as sacrificing seven holy virgins - to the musicians' appetites I think, not to the Dark Lord Himself; the boys didn't specify the girls' ages however so let's hope they don't get a bunch of aged toothless harpies - in laboured and dense lyrics.

There are six songs with four short "hidden" whispered pieces in-between tracks so the album has to be heard loudly and that means every proper song begins with a tremendous blast of noise and screaming! "The Chosen One", "Blood stainth the temple stones" and "Infernal Solar Vortexx" are the best tracks, the first two for their melodies and riffs and the last song for its inspired chaos in parts. "Kruzifixxion" is a record best suited for those who like their BM raw and raucous, raging and harsh, and who don't mind that this isn't a very original release. It barely pushes the dimensions of Satanic black metal lyrically or musically. There's plenty of humour and the musicians don't appear to take themselves all that seriously.

An original version of this review appeared in The Sound Projector (Issue 14, 2005 - 2006) which is now out of print.

This opus gives me an erection every time I listen to it. Pure old-school black metal! Katharsis does not sound like any other band, they are a unique band. This album is very much influenced by early Darkthrone of course but there is no plagiarism here, not at all.

The vocalist is possessed by Satan and his shrill cries fit perfectly to the killer riffs. The drums are awesome, blast beat all the way with some original parts here and there. Just raw stuff the way it's got to be!

Now I think this is an absolute must for anyone seriously into black metal. What's most striking about this masterpiece is how the musicians manage to make the listener feel the power, the talent and the hate they possess. There's a metallic, satanic atmosphere that comes out of each song, you can't have enough of it!

And this is the first release by NOEVDIA so expect killer religious lyrics. What's more the artwork is outstanding. The best effort by Katharsis so far in my opinion.

Alright, I’ll start off saying that this album is highly overrated. I’ve seen to many highly positive reviews for this album, and so I picked it up. I listened to it and was like… blah? This album gives nothing to the listener except a barrage of shitty vocals, boring unoriginal guitar riffs I’ve heard a million different places already, and a standard set of drum patterns that isn’t even played that well.

First off, like I said above the guitars here are just another batch of boring riffs that we’ve all heard a million times. Take any other mediocre black metal band and they’ve played these riffs to, cause that’s exactly what they are, mediocre stereotypical black metal riffs. And they’re just played over and over, with little variation causing for a boring listen. Not even going to start on the absent bass guitar. Drums are pretty standard blast beat after blast beat, with a countless number of mistakes being made. Just makes this release even more blah.

Lastly, there’s the vocals. These seem strained; with the traditional screech here and there that sounds more like a howl. I’m not a big fan of the howly sort of vocals, so maybe it’s just a preference thing here, but I don’t find the vocalist very good at all.

Production on the release is actually pretty solid though. It’s relatively lo-fi with most of the instruments, but taking a pretty clean sound on the vocal production. It’s solid as far as black metal goes, and actually improved the sound of the album.

Overall this is a boring run-of-the-mill album that there’s no real reason to pick up unless you have a crapload of cash and bought every other black metal band out there.

Being the second full-length album of Katharsis, this piece of black metal blasphemy has taken these three germans' style a little more further away from the Darkthrone-style of BM, which was quite present on the "666" album.
That album is very good as well, but that's not the point.

Production-wise, there are no big differences between "Kruzifixxion" and "666". No bass, and the thin guitars, carton-sounding drums and the morbid shrieks are all covered up in reverb. Despise what you might think, the production on this album is pretty clear and everything is well audible.

The album starts with a VERY high pitched scream, and the killer song that is "the last wound" . It goes on in a quite chaotical black metal-manner until the finale that is a quite atmospheric melody (and perhaps the only real on the album?) finishes the song off. Between each song there is some sentences spoken out low backwards, nothing spectacular but it adds some to the "inpleasant" atmosphere I get when I listen to this album.

I guess this is the real power of the album - An impleasant atmosphere created by harsh, thin music and really impressing vocals in my opinion. The booklet is also filled with blasphemous illustrations and lyrics...

So this is a good album, certainly not as easy-listened as 666(If you can call that easy-listening, that is), and Katharsis has a style more of their own now.
Fans of harsh black metal, check this out!