I was fortunate enough to hit up the 2011 edition of HEAVY T.O. and even purchased the tickets before the band were announced. For some reason, I had a feeling it was going to be a good year :-)
Now, for these articles, I usually throw around some opinions and constructive criticisms. I'm going to keep all feelings aside and just report on some need to know facts about these bands to make your experience at the festival a little more enjoyable. If you know of someone going to the festival, pass the articles along and get them just as stoked as we are! For today, AFGM brings you KATAKLYSM!
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The Canadian Hyperblasters KATAKLYSM formed in 1991 and spread their first demo one year later Death Gate Cycle Of Reincarnation already obtained recognition worldwide and ultimately led to a record deal with Nuclear Blast, signed in 1993. Demo plus bonus track 'The Orb Of Uncreation' became KATAKLYSM's first official release in the form of the MCD The Mystical Gate Of Recreation, also in stores 1993.
The extreme high speed Death Metal with its very own character shown on The Mystical Gate Of Recreation laid the foundation stone of a new metal style: The Northern Hyperblast. Thereafter, KATAKLYSM presented their very first full length album Sorcery, a revelation concerning fast and brutal metal. The release of Temple Of Knowledge in 1996 topped Sorcery in terms of destructiveness and wrecking energy - a true archetype that bestowed the band great compliment, euphoric critics and several well-visited tours.
On the following albums Victims Of This Fallen World and The Prophecy KATAKLYSM started to experiment with new possibilities in sound and arrangements, leading the critics to name The Prophecy one of the most devastating releases in extreme music in years.
The big question afterwards: Would a further increase be possible? Yes, indeed! With Epic (The Poetry Of War), Canada's finest created a classic, backed with a melodic edge and propelled by extreme roaring power, making KATAKLYSM's star rising on and on. TV appearances and headliner tours pervaded the band's life forward and took them to more than 19 countries all around the world.
In 2002, the release of Shadows & Dust continued KATAKLYSM's success with nine immense ass-kicking tracks, including the extreme hymn 'Illuminati.' The Canadian magazine BW&BK described the album as "a pure holocaust of events as all the planets appear to have lined up for this scar on humanity" and voted it among the best 25 records of the year!
It wasn't surprising when KATAKLYSM hit several top lists with Serenity In Fire, and now with their latest release In The Arms of Devastation, KATAKLYSM's strongest evidence that the Death Metal freaks from Canada have found the receipt of success: Northern Hyperblast at terminal velocity!
Katakylsm consists of:
Maurizio Iacono - Vocals | Jean-Francois Dagenais - Guitar | Stephane Barbe - Bass | Max Duhamel - Drums
The legendary four piece have made quite a name for themselves, both in North America as well as the rest of the world for their ferocious vocals and hard hitting tracks! Recently, the band has decided to comprise the last 20 years of the hard work into a compilation CD/DVD set, know as "The Iron Will." The compilation was released on July 3rd, 2012 and will feature a documentary and bonus CD materials...
(DVD I - IRON WILL Part I: The Early Years 1991-2004)
1. Let’s Start A Band 1991-1993
2. Signing to Nuclear Blast in 1994
3. Mexico in 1995
4. Max Leaves the Band
5. The Temple of Knowledge
6. The Reformation in 1997
7. Leaving NB in 1998
8. The Prophecy Returns to NB in 2000
9. EPIC 2001
10. In Shadows & Dust
11. Max Quits, Again
(DVD II - IRON Will Part II: The Rebirth 2004-2011)
1. Serenity In Fire with Martin in 2004
2. Max Comes Back
3. In The Arms... 2006
4. Prevailing in 2008
5. 2010 Heaven’s Venom
6. Ozzfest
7. Albano’s & Saverio
8. The World Tour
9. Transylvania
10. SPQR Rome
11. Touring with Kids
12. New Orleans
13. 2 Decades of Congrats
14. Credits
(DVD II & CD I - ON FIRE AT SUMMER BREEZE: Live at Summer Breeze Open Air 2011)
1. Determined (Vows Of Vengeance)
2. Taking The World By Storm
3. The Awakener
4. To Reign Again
5. Manipulator Of Souls
6. As I Slither
7. At The Edge Of The World
8. As My World Burns
9. Drum Solo
10. Blood On The Swans
11. Astral Empire
12. Feeling The Neverworld
13. The Orb Of Uncreation
14. In Shadows And Dust
15. Crippled And Broken
16. Push The Venom
(CD II - BEST OF KATAKLYSM)
1. Iron Will
2. Like Angels Weeping (The Dark)
3. Push The Venom
4. In Shadows And Dust
5. Manipulator Of Souls
6. Crippled And Broken
7. Prevail
8. As I Slither
9. The Awakener
10. The Resurrected
11. Let Them Burn
12. At The Edge Of The World
13. Taking The World By Storm
14. Blood In Heaven
15. The Ambassador Of Pain
16. Where The Enemy Sleeps
17. The Road To Devastation
18. Sorcery
19. The Orb Of Uncreation
As for a actual LP, Kataklysm will be most likely playing a few tracks off their latest release, "Heaven's Venom". which was was released on August 13, 2010 (Europe) and August 24, 2010 (America) via Nuclear Blast:
1. A Soulless God
2. Determined (Vows of Vengeance)
3. Faith Made of Shrapnel
4. Push the Venom
5. Hail the Renegade
6. As the Walls Collapse
7. Numb & Intoxicated
8. At the Edge of the World
9. Suicide River
10. Blind Savior
The album reviews for Heaven's Venom came back quite impressive. As always, the critics seem to note that the band has been pretty consistent with sound, structure and such for most of their albums...
"It must be mentioned, however, that this predictable sound entails the use of Kataklysm’s strong vocalist, Maurizio Iacono. Surprisingly an owner of his own pizzeria, Iacono has a vocal performance that has progressed nicely with age, peaking with 2006’s In The Arms of Devastation, and continuing to the present as a premier example of melody-flavored death metal voiced correctly; with just enough bite to remain grizzly, enough of a deep tone to prevent ear-grating screeches, and the perfect level of harsh-to-understandable ratio to fit nicely in context of the music. His rough, memorable vocal melodies give replay value to ninth cut 'Suicide River', meshing nicely with the lead-heavy river of distortion that Dagenais creates to carry the vocalist on. Earlier on the album, 'Faith Made of Shrapnel', a song that runs a couple of minutes too long for its own good, would surely be a lost cause without Iacono’s varied use of both his high, harsh tone and that of his respectable lower growl, keeping interest in a song that the other three members of the band just weren’t able to implement successfully themselves.
That last point is perhaps the problem that’s holding Kataklysm back in their set sound, though. Iacono is a great frontman, sure, but instrumentally the band’s aesthetic is really starting to get old. Each of the band’s post-2001 albums all contain a number of memorable tracks, but taken as a whole individually, there’s just not enough to tell them apart. And like those before it, Heaven’s Venom is, in a lot of ways, just another Kataklysm album: There’s head-banging riffs and a number of catchy, harsh vocal melodies, but overall it’s just the same mid-grade melody-flavored death metal that the Canadian band have been playing for years. Still not sure which side of the argument you fall on now? Understandable, it’s still a thin, blurred line that Kataklysm stand on after all, but with each new release I can’t help but feel that the odds are continuing to stack against the Canadian four-piece’s favor: Sadly, it would seem that Kataklysm are stuck in a cycle of repeating themselves, essentially lost on a path of stagnation." -Sputnik Music
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"The always solid Kataklysm return with their tenth studio album Heaven’s Venom. A mature death metal band that always seems to be one step away from top tier status, Kataklysm are always instantly recognizable due to their distinctive sound. Heaven’s Venom is yet another good album from Kataklysm, with a great deal of variation incorporated into well-written songs.
Over their last couple of full-lengths, Kataklysm have subtly altered their style by moving away from the non-stop rolling blasts that were typical of the band’s mid-period releases. Nowadays, besides the requisite blasts, there are lots of moments of groove, traditional riffs, and soloing. In short, the songwriting has jumped forward a few notches as the band is obviously no longer just concerned with tearing your head off.
The difference is subtle, as there are a couple of songs that are all out blasts, or nearly so, such as 'Push the Venom' and 'Faith Made of Shrapnel.' However, even the songs that are mostly concerned with speed incorporate plenty of slower moments with riffing that borders on the traditional style of NWOBHM, such as 'Numb and Intoxicated.' Nice pieces of melody and solos creep in throughout, keeping the songwriting fresh and interesting. The end result of the different elements coming together is a well done, varied album that only a mature band could really pull off.
Heaven’s Venom is another good to great album from Kataklysm, but probably will not change the band’s status in the minds of most." -About.com
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"The quality key on 'Heaven’s Venom' is Kataklysm’s willingness to wrap melodic death metal in pieces that most true death metal fans would spit at. But those things punch up the death metal by giving it a counterpoint and keeping “Heaven’s Venom” from being another monotone thrash-n-bash death metal album. Kataklysm ends up borrowing fairly heavily from Dimebag Darrel and Pantera, as that style of southern boogie metal pops up all over the album. But aside from that southern-fried thrash style, they take pieces from plenty of other places as well. 'Determined (Vows Of Vengeance)' has a killer syncopated snare drum that is reminiscent of Opeth or even Rush, while 'Numb and Intoxicated' pairs speedy blast beats with pinched harmonics and much slower grooves and hooks that are snipped from the bridge riffs on lengthy Iron Maiden cuts. 'At The Edge of The World' in any other context would be a ‘core song - the blast beats breathe under a constantly-fishing guitar line and hooked-up leads, and there is even a tempo change at the end that may as well be a breakdown in disguise.
Kataklysm manages to play all of these potential pitfalls against each other to create diversity and tension, not banality. How many bands have ripped off Pantera or thrown in ‘core elements and epically failed? Clearly the answer is many, and I have not hesitated to point out those failings in the past. But Kataklysm’s experience with arrangements and songwriting and whatnot makes this album a winner. Instead of dragging the excellently performed melodic death metal down with their adventures into other-land, the melodies and death are made more vibrant, fresh, and alive." -Metal Underground
For more information on one of Canada's best kept metal secrets, check them out at any of their following official links:
- www.facebook.com/kataklysm
- www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kataklysm
- www.twitter.com/kataklysmband
- www.youtube.com/user/kataklysmrocks
- www.myspace.com/kataklysm
- www.spreadthevenom.com
*KATAKLYSM WILL BE PERFORMING ON SUNDAY (THE 12TH) AT THE JAGERMEISTER EAST STAGE FROM 16:30-17:00*
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