Thy Catafalque – XII: A gyönyörű álmok ezután jönnek

Last year, Tamás Kátai aka Thy Catafalque released the 11^th album Alföld and already now he’s ready with the follow-up, entitled XII: A gyönyörű álmok ezután jönnek. After fairly experimental and of career highlights Vadak from 2021, the band’s previous album saw them focus on sheer heaviness of this band with the core of the album drawing influences from Black, Death and Thrash Metal. Knowing Thy Catafalque, there were of course countless twists and turns to it as well, but in general it was an album whose core focus was on the heavier side of the band.

As such, XII: A gyönyörű álmok ezután jönnek, is a diametrical opposite, because this is perhaps the most experimental album the band has released since 2018’s Geometria.

That being said, Geometria, remains the album where Kátai took some of the biggest experimental leaps forward, with significant use of electronics and inspirations from ambient music. XII, however, works with familiar elements, but bolting them together in a considerably more approachable vein. This means that most of the band’s trademarks, such as different sorts of Metal, traditional Hungarian music and retro-futuristic elements, are all rather present.

And while the material is utterly diverse, the opener “Piros Kocsi, Fekete Éj” is quite representative of the album. It includes all the above-mentioned aspects, but they are streamlined in a very catchy and even infectious manner. As such, the opener has many Power Metal qualities to it, something that can be said about several other songs such as the title track and nonetheless bonus track “Babylon”.

But there is fortunately much more to this album. After the elegant and smooth sailing of the opener, Thy Catafalque dig into a few songs where they unleash their creativity and sense of intensity. Those three songs are eminent examples of what makes Thy Catafalque great. They are creatively uncompromising, unpredictable yet with a good flow.

Towards the middle of the record, there are a few songs that don’t quite live up to the standard, mostly because the band goes all in on those influences and along the way looses themselves. The Hungarian inspirations are one of the key aspects which make this band so unique, but they work best when they include those elements into the gist of Thy Catafalque. The case is not the same when they basically just go all in. Sure, it’s all well-arranged and delivered, but it lacks the feel of Thy Catafalque songs and clear purpose in the contest of the album.

“Ködkiraly”, which follows, is an example of how magical it gets when a band experiments heavily, but never at the expense of their own identity, which despite such diverse nature of their music is their essential quality.

The above-mentioned title track rounds up things nicely and creates a smooth loop with the opening track. That’s why bonus track “Babylon” apart from a somewhat tacky cross between Running Wild and Powerwolf, seems additionally futile.

It’s utterly impressive that less than a year and a half since the previous release, Tamás Kátai is ready with such a strong and complex record. It gets even more impressive taking into the consideration the countless guests and collaborators involved in this album, as well as the fact that Kátai himself is involved in most of the other creative aspects of the release. Furthermore, it’s just remarkable, the productivity and overall quality of a total of 12 albums Thy Catafalque have released over the course of two decades. At the same time, there is a constant hunger and yearning for creative expanding that is ever present with the band. XII: A gyönyörű álmok ezután jönnek might not be among their strongest releases, but it’s undoubtedly another strong record in their collection.

www.thy-catafalque.hu