In the Maze of Kadath

Hailing from France, Catacomb doesn't have the typical foundations of a scene like those of Sweden or Florida to build its own sound on. This yields some interesting, though not entirely unique results.

As the title of this demo suggests, the band's thematics are centred around Lovecraft's novella "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath". The likes of Morbid Angel and Entombed had already explored Lovecraftian themes, but not to such lengths as to make it their overt identity. Shub Niggurath, among others, had, but bear little or no similarities to this band, nor did their music express the lyrical themes at hand. Catacomb, however, do successfully capture the ambience of Lovecraft's tales in their music: always evocative of the strange and never energetic.

The first track is an instrumental not unlike those on Blessed Are the Sick, but setting a darker tone. Its synthesised choir of female voices leads into the first proper song, The Key, where a repetitive pattern of arpeggios morphs into a rather impressive solo against an austere, slowly grinding backdrop. As the song progresses, Catacomb's prime influences are revealed: a combined force of Finnish and the darker half of the Swedish styles, most notably Demigod and Unanimated. "Hallucinated Mountains" has a lot going on: its first half reeks of Carcass in its putrefied grooves, interspersed with a very Swedish tremolo-picked riff. The second half ventures into blackened guitar harmonies and a surprising flanged bassline. Intelligent songwriting and the steady presence of keyboards keep things together. A confusing and unnecessary detail, though, is the intro, which is simply a copy of the first few seconds of the first track.

Another issue that becomes evident halfway through is the lead guitar work: it either provides a melodic seasoning to the guitar riffs in that unmistakeably Finnish fashion, and proficiently at that, or goes full solo mode, which works out less fortunately as it seems to consist mainly of rather meaningless sweep-picked arpeggios. This gives things an interesting twist the first time around, but by now it just drags along. What makes it worse is that it's out of tune half of the time.

There are some interesting, less easily traceable riffs to be found in the next track, along with more standard-fare death metal riffs in the vein of Deicide or Vital Remains. Closer "Nemesis" has a stronger leaning to the doom and death of a Paradise Lost, but also features a very groovy, alternately palm muted and tremolo picked riff.

On the whole, "In the Maze of Kadath" sounds surprisingly modern, despite its clear influences, and offers some satisfying moments of deep groove and eerie atmosphere. The drum kit sounds well-balanced, with a deep kick tone and a fitting flourish of reverb. Drummer Jérôme plays it competently, never in a rush and always in good taste. The vocals are reminiscent of Adramelech, although they seem to be heavily processed.

For those who care about the recognition a band deserves: yes, Catacomb deserves a copious serving of it, mainly for their excellent songwriting and their knack for fusing a wide array of influences together. Minor gripes would be the intrusive guitar leads and a relative lack of originality.