Thy Catafalque Hungary

"As the cover art suggests, this is dark music with lots of atmosphere and interesting textures. It is hard to pinpoint a core genre, but Thy Catafalque definitely draw on sludge metal, black metal, post-metal, industrial metal, and alternative rock - among others - and all of this is neatly wrapped in a veil of Eastern European melancholy.

While the guitars are crushingly heavy and sludgy at times, while drawing on blackened death metal at other times (the guitars are down-tuned and the distortion is quite brutal), Thy Catafalque are not afraid to add a dose of mellowness in the form of melancholic alt. rock passages and loads of experimentation with keyboards, synths and spacey effects. And this combination works brilliantly in generating a truly unique style of avant-gardish metal which is extremely expressive and darkly melodic. Even at its most brutal moments the focus of "Rengeteg" remains on melody, and the album is rich in lead melodies performed in guitars, synths and more unusual instruments.

There are also several melodies that sound Eastern European to my ears, and with the vocals being sung in Hungarian, the Eastern European feel is just amplified. This folk element, as it were, definitely also contributes to the overall dark and melancholic feel.

Fans of dark experimental music owe it to themselves to check out Thy Catafalque's massive "Rengeteg" album!

(review originally posted at metalmusicarchives.com)"