'Thy Catafalque : " Naiv"

The 9th album from this Hungarian metal project. The guitars touch on black metal , the rest of the sounds swirling around it are more like very proggy folk metal. If you are on the fence about the black metal part they remind you with some blast beats here and there. A harsher snarled vocal comes in at the half way point of this song. Thew second song finds the bass playing really shining. This sets the stage for horns to accent the groove. I know cool riffs alone does not a good song make, but this is done so right that it works. On the 3rd song the more folk elements of the Hungarian roots are brought out, though they still manage to retain metal qualities.

They dip into what sounds like jamming with a chamber orchestra at times . The extoci serpentine nature of the grooves prevails not matter what slant is being applied here. In trying to decide if I should use this for Black Metal History month  it seems like aside from the occasional riff here and there is is more of a progressive metal album. They test this from time to time with mean spirited harsher vocals.The production on this album is just as stunning as the performances. It blends organic sounds like flutes with more electronic elements and captures the more hefty metal sounds well. There are a great deal of instrumental sections on this album. They do not adhere to conventional song structures thus aiding in the more jammy structure. Sometimes of of these sounds in the same song.

When they go into a more straight forward folk metal approach the results are less impressive though highly executed.  The last act of the album finds the band more eager to reclaim their metal status. There is more of a prog slant to balance out the metal leaning with Middle Eastern Scales woven in. Some of the chord progressions remind me of Baroness. The last song is in a more metal gallop, owing more to power metal. There are keyboard solos all over it to add flare as well as a melodic break down. I will give this one a 9.5. A step up for the band , not sure how urgently I am going to feel compelled to listen to this album, but can commend what they have done here.