Katharsis / Black Witchery

Here we have a split between one of the filthiest, most demonic black metal bands out there, and the turd known as Katharsis. For obvious reasons I’m going to start with Black Witchery.

Black Witchery’s side starts out with some hectic war metal drumming and riffing, which are soon joined by the deranged mating calls of Impurath. They don’t even sound like they’re trying to play a melody, more like a couple of bloodthirsty maniacs got stuck behind some instruments in the midst of their killing spree and went with it. This turns into a loose interpretation of “a song,” as anyone familiar with Black Witchery will know their satanic ruckus could hardly be called music. And yet I find myself wailing along “grrawarr darrarr arrrr hhrhrhrhhr.” They did it again - Black Witchery churns out some of the most sadistic, uncompromising raw black metal in under three minutes of indistinct riffs and garbled snarling. The production is pretty muddy as per usual, except towards the middle end of the song it becomes clear that this is a live recording, which explains it (but doesn’t explain the production of their other releases – just kidding. don’t sacrifice me). The crap quality of the recording is in fact perfectly suited for the raw musical stylings of Black Witchery and helps the atmosphere. It’s not Witchery of Filth, okay?

The second coming of Black Witchery is a Bathory cover, which means a noisy version of an already noisy song. Not a bad rendition at all – I’m thinking maybe I should delete this entire review and leave it at BLACK WITCHERY CAN DO NO WRONG instead? Anyways, this song brings no shame to the Bathory name while maintaining the Black Witchery griminess (as in grimy, which is grim and then some), and the audience goes batshit crazy when the song takes a hiatus and those headbang-inducing riffs start in the middle. I can just imagine them pouring their black little hearts out on stage while sweating up a storm in those robes. To reiterate: Black Witchery fuels more of a hateful, furious assault in six minutes of shit quality live tracks, than most metal bands could even.. oh hell, half the black metal bands in the world don’t combine to make an onslaught of satanic rawness like this. Black Witchery, you have pleased your master (satan, not me; but I like it too).

Now for the Katharsis side – I’m sorry, I seem to have a hard time rolling my eyes AND writing this review. Is there any more of a blatant Darkthrone ripoff than Katharsis? If you answer yes, you will be sentenced with a lifetime of Katharsis, so speak wisely. Alright, the answer is no. Katharis would be the biggest most unoriginal Darkthrone clone even if Darkthrone donated their stem cells and got cloned. Just like Black Witchery stays true to their sound on this split, Katharsis plays here what Katharsis plays on every other release of theirs: low-fi, simplistic, repetitive, Darkthrone-worship down to the ringing of the screeching-wolf vocals. Darkthrone, Darkthrone, Darkthrone. That sums up this side of the split. I’m pretty sure Shine Beyond has a riff “borrowed” from a Darkthrone song as well, but I’m too goddamn sick of this to go figure out which one. Katharsis aren’t bad at what they do, it’s just that Darkthrone did it first, Darkthrone did it better, and I don’t see the point of settling for imitation. I detest the idea of Katharsis more than I do the music itself, and I damn them to heaven for having two more minutes on this split than the almighty Black Witchery. Ok, I said Darkthrone more in the last five minutes than is good for mental health. Time to wrap this up.

Katharsis is nothing but filler on this split. I would have enjoyed the mere six minutes of live Black Witchery mayhem more had Katharsis not been attached at the end to tarnish things. Black Witchery delivers a mini blitzkrieg of ruthless, filthy black metal. For any Black Witchery fan – a live version of a song you’ve probably heard a thousand times but still don’t know the words too (I’m not the only one, right?), and a Bathory cover dare I say more venemous than the original. Or if you’re not a fan – this is as good a place as any to get to know the evil in flowing robes that is Black Witchery. In the spirit of not being spiteful (for once), I’m going to say the Katharsis side of the split will probably appeal to Katharsis fans; however I am not going to recommend anyone get this split for the Katharsis side, or get into this futile copycat band at all. Wow that came out pretty spiteful anyways. Just listen to the Black Witchery and BURN THE HOLY SCRIPTURE FORGED WITH LIES.