To Be Shunned by All​.​.​.​ as Centres of Pestilence

German Black Metal duo Kathaaria has made listeners wait for its new album too long – 14 years. So they are back. Undoubtedly, their debut "The Complex Void of Negativity" contained a black metal approach far from the usual patterns, but now they went to even greater extremes: the structure of the songs has become more sophisticated and the same can be said concerning the riffing. Uncommon imagination worked here, it can be heard from the very first riff of "Agenda Nihil", they put a lot into it and its attitude, this riff is defiant to every prediction or expectation, in addition it is covered in some strange tricks. And this feeling does not disappear as the album develops.

Mainly modern techniques and feats were used in this saturated riffing, including of course such a required avant-garde/experimental element as dissonance, yep, there are more of them now than on "The Complex Void..." Kataharia have shown more than once that it is possible to do both weird and elegant sections with this technique, but we would like to draw your attention to "Degenerate Encapsulate": it starts with a dissonant picking passage played on a clean guitar – and you know what? it resembles nothing more than Depeche Mode, – its abnormality is exacerbated even more when this picking suddenly jumps into an inverse phase.

At the same time old school death metal moves are sometimes heard in the music of Kathaaria. Right, not black metal ones at all. Well, they're scattered all over the album, also Kathaaria remember that tremolo is the foundation of not only atmospheric black metal, we often hear death metal tremolo picking on the album as well: pay attention first of all to the final part of "Agenda Nihil" and the beginning of "The Judas Principle". But for all that those episodes still sound like black metal.

For that matter, strange things are happening here with usual/classic black metal: you'd rather hear Christ Agony (check "The Last Act of Rebellion") than the more expected Scandinavian black metal acts. Even pinch harmonics ("The Last Act of Rebellion" and "Degenerate Encapsulate") are perceived in this amalgam much more naturally than old school black metal touches.

And yet we deviate from the truth if we say that "To Be Shunned by All... As Centers of Pestilence" is strikingly different from "The Complex Void..." Not strikingly. Despite the long period separating both opuses, the rudiments of the new work can be made out quite easily on the debut, especially in its second half. Yes, the second one, not the first. But on the whole "The Complex Void..." is a rather straightforward and non-ambiguous album: the music flows like water from a flagon, it doesn't drag you anywhere. It has no mystery. Maybe. "To Be Shunned..." is a completely different matter – cold, gloomy and mystical, it draws you in like a whirlpool. Some enigma lives in it.

In measured avant-garde black metal, with which Kathaaria pound the listener flat, there are perhaps many viscous elements of doom metal. Yes, there are much more slow parts filled with doom/fatality on the new album than on "The Complex Void..." But that doesn't mean they don't have blast beats or fast passages. They have of course. However Kathaaria behave toward blast beats quite strangely now. "Degenerate Encapsulate" demonstrates this approach best: there is a blast beat here accompanied by strange guitar picking, but wait, you ain't heard nothing yet, the real magic begins a little later when atonal chords hang in the air (like ice blocks) and the vocals are perceived as if from the outside – only the blast beat shows that there is some movement here. This is truly a stunning maneuver. In "Never Dead Enough" almost the same trick is used, but this time the slow lingering death metal riff suddenly turn into black metal tremolo picking.

Each song has something like an intro, i. e. when one or a couple of riffs pumps up the atmosphere stubbornly before the vocal part, and then a sharp change of melodic direction follows. Maybe this is a template from the classic structure of a (death) metal track, but in the interpretation by Kathaaria it is filled with abstract melodies, so the effect is impressive – the long-sounding chords seem to know the way to the center of the Universe, such an immersion into the atmosphere they make with you. These strange introductions are completed with maniacal and evil avant-garde progressions, which are periodically pierced by heartrending melodies. Right, this album is a creation for a sophisticated listener.

The vocals rather demonstrate modern tendencies too – more declaiming than singing. And in terms of tone quality this is some kind of painful mixture of John Tardy and Nergal. However, Tardy wins much more often in this astatic fight, so some groovy tinges of Obituary in the voice enhance the death metal attitude of the material (especially "The Judas Principle" and "Never Dead Enough"). At the same time, the black metal atmosphere of the album is not disturbed.

It's hard to name the best song in this realm of diversity and unpredictability. Nonetheless. As sophisticated and technical as the rest songs, "The Judas Principle" differs from them not only by starting as a drone metal piece. It contains, perhaps, the most melodic and poignant fragment on the album, a melodic funeral lick. As was already mentioned, old school death metal echoes can be found in other songs – well, if you want specific examples, then Atrocity in "Agenda Nihil" or Morbid Angel in "Degenerate Encapsulate", – but in "The Judas Principle" you can find touches of Cynic themselves, from their progressive death metal era. This is the most amazing song on the album.

While the last "Apathetic" is the worst one. Obviously needless. You won't find black metal or death metal here, only post black metal. Too much clean guitar in this song, to say the least. This instrumental can't be saved even by a sudden melodic and dreary lick from the 70's rock era (sort of). A strong blast-beat accompanied by some rockish atonal guitar picking is a bit reminiscent of the album's "schtick"-maneuver, but it would be better if "To Be Shunned by All..." did without this track.

Summary. "To Be Shunned by All... As Centers of Pestilence" is a perfect example of what can be done with black metal by rooting it out of the initial era (i. e. "The Complex Void of Negativity") and transplanting it into another metal soil, generously fertilizing with weird additives. "To Be Shunned by All..." is a grown wise with experience narrator compared to its predecessor, with too much juvenile eagerness. Very impressive.

The Metal Observer