Catafalque - Sepulcre


Any artist proclaiming themselves as ‘HARSH NOISE DRONE DOOM METAL’ is bound to cause eyes to roll and heads to turn in equal measure; a true musical Marmite. Heavily littered throughout each of the genres listed in Catafalque’s self-descriptor are acts that manage to churn out song after song of uninspired tunes without any real identity save for defining themselves against the sounds of other acts. Not so with Catafalque. Hearts and inspirations on their sleeves? Definitely. But the bleak hopelessness conjured by Dolby, Ozers, and Shepard unmistakably charts them amongst the brightest (or in this case, bleakest) in their constellation. 


‘Sepulcre’, the first single released in anticipation of new album We Will Always Suffer (26th June 2020) continues the Catafalque tradition of lamenting drones and towering textures. Anchoring the ear on this tune however, as opposed to previous solo machinations, is a repeating drum beat that lies somewhere between heavy hip hop and industrial in its nature. Catafalque display a deft capability of purveying their brand of sonic misery in the very contrasting of a subdued, low tempo beat and reverb washed pads against the group’s more familiar distorted undulations, as though the infinite misery soundscape of post-industrial Britain were given electro-acoustic form. 


‘Sepulcre’ is a strong, creative step for Catafalque and certainly gets me hyped for We Will Always Suffer. The track shows a level of restraint which dares to tip its toes in the waters of ambient electronic music, and should serve to clue in those would-be eye rollers that Catafalque’s HARSH NOISE DRONE DOOM METAL results in something far greater than its constituent parts. Bring on the suffering. 


YouTube:


Bandcamp:

https://catafalque.bandcamp.com/album/we-will-always-suffer


JC

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