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On disc: Catamenia



Eskhata - Claudia Ehrhardt - 8 stars
Eskhata - Volker Raabe - 1 stars
Cavalcade - Carsten Bahr - 6 stars
Cavalcade - Claudia Ehrhardt - 8 stars
Cavalcade - Mike Thompson - 8 stars
The Rewritten Chapters - Lars Bjørn - 9 stars


www.catamenia.net







The Rewritten Chapters

The Rewritten Chapters
(Massacre Records - 2012)


This band has been through many line-up changes, and after 14 years and over 10 albums they were in a situation where they had to decide, What are we going to do now? The answer comes on the new record from Catamenia, the album where they go from melodic black metal into a new genre that could be called power black metal, because their way to deal with the situation was to take full advantage of their new singer Juha-Matti Perttunen's special harsh voice, a voice that sounds like he has just eaten a lot of salt and shaking his head in agony, but make no mistake, his vocal power is enormous and allow him to sing at full speed in his own harsh and growling way.

The album is called The Rewritten Chapters and consist of some of the best songs from their whole career, it's not a kind Greatest Hits, because they have done exactly what the title tells: rewritten the songs so they fit the new style with power metal. And the result is amazing, 15 songs all dominated by Perttunen's power voice and the genuine musicality of the band. Blackmension is the hard metal song where your head starts a serious head banging in balance with Juha-Matti Perttunen and his voice that simply has to explored to get the drift of what he is doing. Alive..Cold..Dead is next in the metal line, the full force line where the creative songwriting makes a huge success with this power metal song. Cavalcade is not only a superb rhythm, it's also very elegant guitars, great balanced and still with power enough to freeze the seas forever. My Bloodstained Path goes in a different direction with progressive power metal and good creative ideas to make a new version of this song. Eskhata is another one of their great songs which has found a new life, melodic powerful singing from Perttunen, and his voice makes once again the big difference. Lost In Bitterness has genius quality, glimpse in the eye and the natural hardness that fits Catamenia very well. As the last song comes a total surprise that knocks you over, a cover version of the Bon Jovi hit: Born To Be My Baby. Totally blown away is the radio friendly impression that the original song had, and scraped down by sandpaper a new song comes to life, Born To Be My Baby, rewritten by Catamenia. Funny and solid crazy metal which has the fantastic ability to catch the crowd with their no nonsense attitude. Catamenia's new album The Rewritten Chapters is old wine on new bottles, but the idea to make this career move is probably the best and brightest thing they have done.


9 stars

Lars Bjørn
 

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Cavalcade

Cavalcade
(Massacre Records - 2010)


Catamenia is a Finnish five-piece that play a brand of metal that is both heavy and raw in a black metal vein and yet melodic like power metal. Cavalcade is their ninth full-length album.

Cavalcade is a guitar driven album that contains powerful melodies and catchy riffs that cross the spectrum of the metal sound, from the furious black metal - like assault of Quantity Of Sadness to the heroic Viking metal inspired title track.

The whole album is imbued with that typically Finnish metal sound. The growled vocals are harsh but intelligible in a similar style to Ensiferum's Petri Lindroos, but the vocal style also changes to clean singing that, most of the time, really works. The vocal harmonies are very catchy and give the music an extra dimension that a lot of similar bands don't have.

The songs generally clock in at between four and five minutes in length which is just about right. A few of the songs, The Vulture's Fest for example, aren't quite as enjoyable as others but the songs rarely if ever seem boring.

As well as eight original songs the album also contains two covers. The first is a Sentenced song, Reincarnation, the second is Megadeth's Angry Again. I'm not familiar with Sentenced's work so I don't know how it compares to the original, but I enjoyed the song. The Megadeth cover is fantastic, taking all that made the original good and adding in a bit of Catamenia. Its a fitting tribute to the Bay Area thrashers.

Overall a great album from Catamenia, proving once again why the Finnish scene is viewed as one of the strongest metal scenes in the world. Definitely one to check out for anyone who appreciates a good mix of harsh and melodic music.


8 stars

Mike Thompson
 

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Cavalcade

Cavalcade
(Massacre Records - 2010)


Catamenia started back in 1995 as a melodic black metal band, now they present their 9th studio album. Cavalcade shows the band with a dark atmospheric sound, long gone seems the days of black metal - but you can still find some reminiscences, check out e.g. The Path That Lies Behind Me!

The opening track Blood Trails offers harsh vocals by guitarist Ari Nissilä as well as guest singer Ville Laihiala (ex-Sentenced). The title track shows the Finnish dark and melodic with clean vocals by guitarist Kari Vähäkuopus and growls by bassist Toni Kansanoja. Catamenia developed their own sound using different vocal styles, fans of the early days might not appreciate this... Therefore others will discover Catamenia. The songs have some fast black metal parts, but sooner or later they slow down and present some atmospheric passages with catchy vocal / guitar melodies. The Vulture's Feast is the most melodic one on Cavalcade and perhaps an indication where Catamenia are heading to... The regular version ends with a cover version of Megadeth. Angry Again kinda sticks to the original, but the Finnish also managed to add some Catamenia elements.

If you loved Catamenia in the past, then check out the new album first. If you are into dark metal with black metal elements, then you this is probably what you are looking for!


8 stars

Claudia Ehrhardt
 








Cavalcade

Cavalcade
(Massacre Records - 2010)


Finnish outfit Catamenia have released 9 albums in their 12 years-long career. Little by little they left their black metal sound behind and they continue with Cavalcade. These days Catamenia are more influenced by Amorphis, Sentenced and In Flames, then sticking to the black metal sound of their early days. But there are also reminiscences to classic heavy metal and Kari more often adds clean vocal parts. He still growls and adds scolding vocals, but nowadays the Finnish focus on melodies. The opener Blood Trails shows Sentenced influences which are even more obvious as ex-Sentenced singer Ville Laihiala joins in at this one and makes it shine. The title track Cavalcade is a stomping track in a traditional heavy metal outfit, Kari's vocals switch between clean vocals and scolding ones. Songs like The Path That Lies Behind Me, Quantity Of Sadness and A Callous Mind are more melodic death metal-like, but even these tracks have clean vocals at the refrain. A few growls been added and again they add some classic metal elements. With The Vulture's Feast they offer a balladesque one and with Angry Again a Megadeth cover version, but it can't keep up with the original. Actually ain't the strongest track Mustaine did. At the digi-pack they added another cover version, this time they chose Sentenced's Farewell which shows again the main influences on Cavalcade.

The Finnish's latest piece of work isn't bad, but I miss some ferocity, the heaviness and manginess Catamenia had in the past. The album is very well produced and played in a high level and the songs offer great melodies, but still... It's a good album which should please fans of the above mentioned bands, but fans of old Catamenia albums might be disappointed....


6 stars

Carsten Bahr
(translation: Claudia Ehrhardt)
 








Eskhata

Eskhata
(Massacre Records - 2002)


Founded in 1995 this is the 4th album of the Finnish. Again the band had to deal with a line-up change, coz Sir Luttinen and Heidi Riihinen left. With their last release Eternal Winter's Prophecy the band entered the premier league of black metal. This album is recorded in the bands home town Oulu at the SoundMix Studios and is produced by Mika Pohjola. On drums they have Kalmah's Janne Kusmin who isn't part of the band! Anyway, songs like Coexistence Circle and Landscape are brilliant black metal tracks. With this album the Finnish quartet showed their enormous potential and this is a step ahead for them. Well done!


8 stars

 






Eskhata

Eskhata
(Massacre Records - 2002)


Do you know the death metal version of karaoke? You don't? So listen.... It's pretty simple... Attention now, the first verse: GGGGGGGRRRRRRMMMMMMMMMMM........ GRRRRRRRRRRRR......... GRAGGRAGGRAGGRAGGR. That was pretty easy, wasn't it? And now repeat that!
And 1, 2 ,3.... GGGGGGGGRRRRRRRRR........ GRUMGRUMGRUM...... GAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAG..... GGGGGRRRMMMMM.....

Got it? And now verse 2! Hahahaha....... And now attention again! GGGGRRRUUMMMMGGGGGRRRUUUMMM..... GARZGARZGARZZZZGGGGAAARRR....... AAAAAAAHHHHRRRRRGGGGGGG........... Great, isn't it? Nice album of Catamenia. Eskhata is also a very good instruction for "How to become a black metal singer?" Even if it is the 4th release of the extreme Finnish band. And now, everybody!

GGGGRRRRUUUUNNNNNZZZZZGGGRRRUUNNNZZZ........ GGGGNNNNAAAARRRRZZZGGNNAARRZZZGNARZ.


1 stars

Volker Raabe
(translation: Claudia Ehrhardt)
 

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