Review of Katalepsy - "Gravenous Hour"

FROM RUSSIA, WITH BRUTALITY

By: Geoff Teach

While geopolitical bullshit may occasionally divide our heads of state, when it comes to metal, Russians and Americans are permanently bonded as kindred spirits. With an ardent and ravenous mutual love for extreme music, all borders can be broken down. And seeming to prove this point with poignancy, Moscow’s Katalepsy and California’s Unique Leader Records have again joined forces, this time to bring the forthcoming Gravenous Hour to the masses of the metal-loving world – and what a ferocious union it has become.

On May 27th, 2016, the Russian death metal quintet Katalepsy will set loose Gravenous Hour upon the world; and the world would do well to take notice of this penetratingly driven release. Gravenous Hour is the third full-length album from the veteran fivesome (and second with Unique Leader), and on this effort, Katalepsy have left no holds barred. Intense, barbarous, and utterly killer, Gravenous Hour is brutal as brutal can be.

Comprised of eleven excessively heavy tracks, Katalepsy’s Gravenous Hour is vehemently violent, bitingly brisk, and most importantly, keenly composed, performed, and produced. Sounding similar to Origin or Hideous Divinity, Katalepsy’s new album kicks all sorts of ass, from Stalingrad to San Francisco. Some of the more superlative cuts on Gravenous Hour include the album’s lengthiest, “Blindead Sultan”, as well as other rippers like “Critical Black Mass” (my personal favorite), “After Omega”, “Grave New World”, and the astonishing “Ghoul Inquisitor”. Altogether, Katalepsy’s Gravenous Hour is downright magnificent, and I urge anyone reading this to get this awesomeness in your ear-holes as soon as its released.