I have been trying out Thy Catafalque‘s work since 2018’s Geometria without much success in finding something to like. Many of the elements of the music are enjoyable but never add up to albums that come together as a whole. While Vadak came close, its scattershot approach again prevented me from enjoying it fully. My expectations had turned low at Alföld‘s announcement, but the promise of Thy Catafalque diving into heavier territory piqued my interest. They are no strangers to heavier moments but an album full of that is something I wanted to hear. As it turns out, Alföld starts out as such but does not keep it going throughout the entire runtime. This is fine, as I find that this focus on one direction, even with its detours, makes for a more cohesive album than I have heard from this project before. Meant to be played from top to bottom, Alföld is like a charred sandwich with savory middle, sticking its most intense moments at the bookends while leaving space for the Progressive and Folk aspects of Thy Catafalque‘s sound to shine in the middle.
The first track starts things off with an almost OSDM vibe to it while the second track has moments that sounds like they could have fit in an Enslaved song with its groovy Rock riffs. Being Progressive Metal, the sound is lush and the production leaves a lot of room for the various kinds of Metal and Folk-infused Progressive Rock alike. A lot of the songs change between a basic Rock/Heavy Metal groove to Thrash Metal or Death Metal at the drop of a hat. The most successful songs utilise this mix of elements in a great way, like “A földdel egyenlo” with its intense Thrash groove mixed up with Progressive Rock leadwork that culminates with a swinging drum rhythm, a Sigh-like vocal moment and dual guitars harmonizing like they escaped from an Iron Maiden song. The title track meanwhile starts out with foreboding Doom and Death Metal riffs complemented with horns and a synth line that could have come from a Dead Can Dance song. This song transitions from the harsh beginning to Heavy Metal, then to soft Progressive Rock with the usual guest feature of Martina Veronika Horváth‘s beautiful vocals before competently transitioning to an acoustic break that recalls Opeth to play things out. The title track starts a string of songs that sound more like Progressive Rock and Folk moods and herein lies my one criticism of the album. None of that material is bad but the songs lack the same kind of direction as what came before. The structure of the album is not bad by any means but the sustained trapeze jump Alföld does between its bookends threatens to derail the album. Fortunately, the album call it quits at 43 minutes with a heavy song that has a strong chorus, making this easy to forgive. I might finally have found the album that convinces me that Thy Catafalque is for me and I remain intrigued to find out what direction Támas Kátai will take next time.
