Meditations

Kataklysm ranks as one of my favorite bands of all-time. These Canadians have released some monumental metal masterpieces like "Sorcery", "Kataklysm III" and "Epic", amongst many others which I don't really care to keep mentioning. Whenever a band is aware that it has hit a sort of ceiling, they either completely collapse into mediocrity, slowly dig themselves a deep grave by becoming boring and predictable, or can aspire to reach even greater heights. The last of those possible scenarios is one of the hardest to achieve, and there are only a handful of bands that I enjoy, which I can safely say have never released a bad album in their career. Unfortunately enough, Kataklysm has not managed to impress me with their latest offering entitled "Meditation". Actually, I'm quite pissed off, which is a little bit naive from my part.

The album's title, I'm presuming is a reflection of the lyrical content it contains. However, most of these "meditations" are god-damn self-evident, poorly written, and conveyed and delivered even more poorly. This album spans around thirty-eight minutes, and even though it might pass off as short at first glance I beg you not to judge a full-length by its running time. This album could have been much more concise and could have made a much more poignant statement. Unfortunately, the music on this full-length becomes too self-aware and focused on groovy elements, to maintain any sort of musical credibility. Most songs can be considered as filler material and lack any sort of individuality.

This thrash-inspired, modern groove/melodic death metal, reminiscent of Pantera, Machine Head and even latter-Slipknot, is filled with groovy rhythm guitar riffs, occasional shredding, uninteresting drum patterns, and amazing vocals. Right off the bat, the album starts with a potential single called "Guillotine" which reminded me of Thy Art is Murder at one point due to the core-ish vibe, the vocals project. The song-writing on this first song is rather basic and formulaic, this had already turned my excitement into resentment. Against, all odds, I decided to carry forth my experience of listening to this album.

The second song kicks off, then the third one starts, and after a few minutes, you'll find yourself listening to the tenth, and last track on the album. I found it very hard to actually differentiate between one song and the other. In my opinion, a lot of the songs on this album could contend amongst many mainstream metal songs. The riffs are catchy, the production is crisp and clear, everything is mixed well, and the bass has a very cool sound, unfortunately, it doesn't have many moments during which it can shine. There's is not much else to say. Every song on this album is cookie-cutter. To be completely sincere, I did enjoy "The Last Breath I'll Take Is Yours" and "In Limbic Resonance", but apart from those two songs, the rest I consider to be mostly bunk.

I believe that every old Kataklysm fan will remain disappointed, and be left with a bad taste in the mouth after giving "Meditations" a spin. It's such a disjointed and bland hunk of insipid excrement I've listened to this year. Maybe, I'm being a bit tyrannical and irrational in my overall judgment of this full-length, however, to someone who has been aware of the potential of this band for a lot of time, this album passed off as a mere money-grab and attempt to keep up with the times, in the most annoying and derivative way possible. I'd reccommend anyone to stay away from this shit.

Meditations is a throwback to the era of melodic death metal popular in the early 00’s with bands like Arch Enemy. More technical than progressive, a little more thrash than death but with plenty of melodies. It doesn’t exactly sound like a 2018 album, but I like it anyway.

It blends mild death riffs with complex melodies and solos. The vocals are similar to Death’s The Sound Of Perseverance or several thrash bands, a rough but clear style with some parts that are way more melodic and ‘mainstream’. Closer to singing. The rough vocals are good though and dominate the tracks. This is a guitar heavy album and as a guitarist I can appreciate the wizardry going on, as can the vocalist by the sounds of it as he will often just let the instruments play out entire licks without interruption.

They have all the elements to make a classic death metal album but instead they choose to present it with a lot of showmanship and variety. It’s well put together and catchy but still feels like a legitimate metal band. Bits and pieces of songs will sound very familiar with the galloping riffs and tremolos but when viewing the song as a whole I can’t say I’ve heard a lot like it this year – if only because it’s a bit of a dated sound.

It’s as heavy as most old school death metal but not nearly as heavy as modern death. You will need to turn the volume up to feel the effect of the mix. They don’t use a whole heap of bass or gain, and it even sounds like it’s in standard tuning which is great for the high note scales and solos. It also allows the vocals to sit nicely on top of the composition rather than blending into it, it’s there to be listened to.

As much as I want to fault them for sticking so closely to the melo-death template, I just can’t help but enjoy this LP. It plays nicely in the background but can also be played over a sound system for some moderate head nodding and the odd air guitar solo. Considering they have been around for nearly 30 years and the last half of those years have been poorly received, I’d say Kataklysm are in a good form in 2018 despite the musical hardships. Hopefully this album is received better and motivates them to elevate their medium in the coming years.

Originally posted on Noob Heavy (Reviews 2018 releases exclusively): www.noobheavy.com