Kataklysm music reviews

All I have to say is that "Elder God" is just heavy as all get out. One listen to just this song is a dose of death metal to hold me for the whole day! Yeah! Those nondescript 'incantations' in the high screamy voice make those with even a casual interest in light, love and goodness wither into a dry husk. I won't even bother myself with whatever streetwise\rap bull they are doing now - why punish oneself? Sylvain Houde is the mic-eating MAN!

As far as technical death metal goes, Kataklysm is by far one of the best bands in the genre. This album is excrutiatingly brutal, with some of the most inhuman vocal performances you can ever hope to find. Although the album hammers you in the face with full-blown chaos, there is a vein of melody throughout, which truly holds this masterpiece together. Very intense stuff, and very well arranged. One of the best!

My first reaction upon hearing this disc was, "Wow! " You see, the few scattered sound clips I'd heard of Kataklysm just hadn't impressed me very much. But one day I saw this at a local music store so I thought, "What the hell? You don't see Kataklysm's first disc very often. Might as well pick it up." So I did and it made my day. Kataklysm ain't the most technical beast I've ever heard (this album is from 1994 you know) but the mystical and magical elements thrown in basically make this one of the best albums I own. Anyone who likes their death metal technical and thought-provoking should do themselves a favor and pick this up.

is all you need to make you're day.the goosebumbs will stay with
you throughout this mystikal journey,if you want a lesson in brutality,here you go,sylvain houde,IS the most brutalist vocalist i have ever heard,it's grinding dueling vocals at its best.
this masterpeice is timeless,it will make you "UTTERLY" speechless.THIS "IS" THE ONLY TRUE NORTHERN HYPERBLAST.
BUY THEM ALL.............................

I like the album alot! I think it should have sounded abit more like Sorcery with the vocl style, but other than that This album rocks!

This is one of the best death metal albums in history.The vocals are just insane. You have to get this album if you like any kind of metal!!

I recently got into Kataklysm over a month ago when I bought "Serenity in Fire", and I have to say, this is some of the most brutal and in your face death metal I've heard in my life. This album just crushes and destroys absolutely everything in it's path. The musicianship on here is absolutely awesome. Brutal vocals, angry guitars, and ohhhh man those sick insane machine-gun-like drums. Maurizio Iacono's vocals are very awesome ranging from brutal growls to frightening screams. Guitarist J-F Daginais shreds and tears throughout with angry crushing riffs that rips through your bones like a buzzsaw. Stephane Barbe has some good bass lines you can hear as well. Drummer Martin Maurais absolutely slaughters on this album. His machine-gun-like double bass drumming is absolutely sick and insane. If you don't believe me, just listen to the drum solo on track seven "Blood on the Swans". It will have you feeling like you've been hit by a semi truck, just totally awesome!! Other standouts include "The Ambassador of Pain", "For All Our Sins" (which features guest vocals by Peter Tagtgren of Hypocrisy), "10 Seconds From The End", "The Resurrected", "Serenity in Fire", and "Under the Bleeding Sun".
Jeremy's song ratings:
1. The Ambassador of Pain - Great opener. 5/5
2. The Resurrected - 5/5
3. As I Slither - 5/5
4. For All Our Sins - 5/5
5. The Night They Returned - 5/5
6. Serenity in Fire - 5/5
7. Blood on the Swans - Love that drum solo in the begining. 5/5
8. 10 Seconds From The End - 5/5
9. The Tragedy I Preach - 5/5
10. Under the Bleeding Sun - Great closer, has a nice guitar solo BTW. 5/5

Overall highly recommended for fans of Vader, Deicide, Cryptopsy, Nile, Morbid Angel, Suffocation, Hate Eternal, Cannibal Corpse, Malevolent Creation or even Hypocrisy, At The Gates, and Dark Tranquility for that mattter. Kataklysm are without a doubt the TRUE voices of metal. Bottom Line: Buy this album now.

Success indeed. the band gets better and better. RECOMENDED!!!!!!! Speed, HEAVY riff, great drummer, what else can be said.

Kataklysm's Serenity In Fire is definitely poised to set the metal world on fire. every song on this album is perfectly executed and they play like they mean it! standout tracks? the whole album is standout. as for Fred Durst's Numba One Fann, this is real metal, not that stupid a** Limp Bizkit you keep touting as number one! face it! Limp Bizkit sucks!

Kataklysm once dubbed themselves as "Northern Hyperblast". Now they are just about as bad as Six Feet Under.

Dont bother with this unless you are into cheesy death metal.

If you like their recent stuff..
The Road To Devastation,
Serenity in Fire

this will be a jaw dropping moment for you.

AMAZING.. Best I've ever heard.

With the album, Shadows and Dust, Kataklysm has progressed melodically. Their musicianship hasn't improved or matured for two reasons. Their musicianship has always been top-notch, so their is very little room for improvement. The second reason is because their playing was a lot more technical on their first two albums. They replaced a certain amount of technicality with melodies that stand on their own and make this album almost as good as their first two. Then again, if you like melody over technicality, then you'll like this album more than the previous ones. It's all preference, however, their musicianship was better on the more technical albums. The drumming is highly technical and he constantly plays hyper and gravity blast beats through out the album. He does well adding variety to the primary guitar riffs by changing tempos often as much as three times during the same guitar riff. He sets the primary rhythms with insanely fast blast beats of varying time signatures with abrupt tempo changes that follow or lead the guitars. He plays some very creative jazzy breakdowns that often serve as transitions for blast beat riffs. Because this album is more melodic, the drumming doesn't get to the speed it did on the album, Sorcery and the Mystical Gate of Reincarnation. The guitars play a variety of styles. Often, the guitars play awesome rhythmic grooves as the primary riffs and then break out into memorable and heavy melodic riffs. The guitars also throw in many interludes with a lot of technical prowlness that consist of tremolo picked scales that are some of the fastest guitar riffs on this album. There are a few solos through out the album and they're played with incredible speed and technicality. The track formatting is always in storytelling mode and the guitars do a superb job of playing a variety of riffs with sudden tempo changes, as well as tying interludes in well with the main riffs. The vocals are mostly deep guttural grunts and the singer shows his range with black Metal like gurgles. This album isn't as technical or chaotic as SATMGOR, which is my favorite Kataklysm album. The tracks in their early career had a lot more interludes, speed, and random riffs thrown into the mix with much more complicated music writing, so I don't like this album as much. However, despite this, this album is still brutal and contains great music writing and musicianship with technical and melodic riffs that mix perfectly with each other.

I got sick of this after repeated listens, but still pretty quality.

The vocals could be better though. Much better.

All of dissopointed fans of the past, take note. This album brings back memories from the old days. The drumming is simply amazing, very fast and tight. Vocals are good, though do not compare to Slylvain Houdes' style, (but who does?) This is deffinitely worth a listen, not Temple of Knowledge Kataklysm, but blows Victoms away.

This album clicked with me the very first time I listened to it. All the aspects of this band just gel together. I don't want to drag this review on and on, so I'm just gonna summarize why this is is a great album and a great band:

1.) The production. It's very clean and crisp sounding which is perfect for the style of music being played.

2.) The lyrics. They're intelligent and well thought out.

3.) The lead vocals. The background vocals are way to high pitched which bears a disturbing resemblance to Dani Filth's vocals, but these vocals are perfect. They're low, but not too low.

4.) The musicianship. It's fairly technical, but they don't try to show off. They're humble and that's an aspect I've always admired in Metal bands.

Overall, this is a great extreme band and I just might pick up more of their releases. Definetly recommended.

My first foray into the intense experience that is Kataklysm came a couple of years after this EP was originally released. The band's debut full length album "Sorcery" beat me around the head severely in 1995 and although it lacked precision and could be considered chaotic and even messy, it was enjoyable due to its downright ferociousness . This 4 track release is fairly similar in style and substance. Brutal death metal with unusual drum patterns and insane vocals. The early vocalist for Kataklysm (he left after the band's 3rd album) was definitely an angry young man. Demonic growls and screaming agony while often completely disregarding structural rhythm altogether. It's a performance worthy of attention, even if it's near impossible to follow the lyric sheet at times due to his unique approach. As earlier mentioned, the drumming is also a bit different, spasmodically galloping and blasting, seemingly breaking restraints whenever the listener tries to get a grip. It's nowhere near as precise nor incredibly fast as Max would produce in years to come, but instead displays a sense of adventure that comes with uninhibited youth.
"The Mystical Gate of Reincarnation" is certainly not without its charms. I enjoy it in the same way that I enjoy early Kreator or Sodom. It's not similar in style, but like those band's in their primitive days, Kataklysm's aggressive attitude and sheer heaviness easily made up for some lyrically and musically immature writing. Unlike the aforementioned veterans, the thing that stops me from calling this essential is the EPs lack of hooks or anything to hold on to for that matter. There are a plethora of riffs flying all over the place and each track changes form several times without ever obeying a common theme to keep the listener onboard. There's a brief respite when the tempo shifts down a notch for "Shrine of Life", yet I find it the least interesting of the 4 tracks. Album closer "The Orb of Uncreation" is the highlight of the album and best represents the path these Canadians would travel after this entertaining if flawed debut. The Northern Hyperblast was only just getting started and preparing for war.

The goosebumps haven't left me yet...This album is a masterpiece....Any deathmetal fan should own it...There music is tight and nothing can come close to it....To bad the singer has been replaced. But overall they are the best deathmetal band ever!!!! Long live hyperblast!!!

Kataklysm never was anything special. I can not support this band in any way.

DONT WASTE YOUR MONEY

For the most part I stay away from death metal. Most death metal bands have brutal,fast and heavy songs that are cool. Unfortunantly they usually all sound the same. This cd is actually pretty good. It still has all the awsome riffs that the other bands have but each song has a unique sound that keeps it from getting boring.
Like Angels Weeping (The Dark 7 Not great but it beats the hell out of bands like slipknot any day. Has some good parts but gets boring after a few listens.
Let Them Burn 6 The guitars are pretty good but it gets repetitive after a while.
Crippled & Broken 7 Crippled and broken is how my neck would feel if I had to headbang to this one. I really think the riffs kick a$$ in this one. It would probably be even better if there was a little more variety.
To Reign Again 7.5 I really like this song. It might even grow on me even more. Great drumming and guitar throughout.
It Turns To Rust 8 This is just a killer song. Awsome opening riff. And the chorus is even kind of catchy. I was going to give this one a 7.5 but it got stuck in my head all day, so I had to give it an 8.
Open Scars 8 I like the variety of guitar in this one. The main riff is really cool, and the solo isnt that bad either.
Temptationest 6.5 i am really kind of indifferent to this one. It is not that bad, but I can see how it could be better.
In Words Of Desperation 7.8 Great drummming and Bad A$$ riffs. This one might grow on me even more with time.
The Road To Devastation 8.5 I think this is my favorite track on here. It kind of reminds me of a Hypocrisy song. Everything about this one is cool.
So I think this is a pretty good cd. I am only a casual death metal fan, so I dont really know that much about this band other than this cd. I might end up liking them more because I will see them live this summer when they are on tour with graveworm.

While this album did not have the earth shattering effect as Serenity in Fire did on me - Kataklysm continues to deliver a heaping host of pure hatred in this realease.

A long time listener of most death metal genre - many bands have become a tired regurgitation of each predicessor. Not these guys - while some of the earlier realeases were a dissapointment Devestation pleased the ear of many a critical commrades - including many a folk down at Mosh Pit records - a local host to the non-divine sounds. The album is composed quite well without a single track that I skip. I make sure to drive by Focus on the Family whenever I can with the windows down and the volume blaring!

"Caged In" is actually track 12. "Portraits Of Anger" is track 4, and all other songs moved up one space, respectively.

Also, \m/ Kataklysm.

It took long enough for this CD to come out in the US. I was waiting for 2 years. Luckily I was able to get a few tracks from a friend, so I knew what I was waiting for. Well...it's not true Kataklysm, as the band was experimenting on a new style more Hardcore than Canadian Hyperblast Death Metal (yes, it's a genre). There are even some Rap Metal influences on Caged In. The songs that stand out the most are (God)Head and I Remember, which is an awesome ballad like song. It even has violins. The only problem with this CD is that the track listing on the case is wrong. They totally forgot Caged In. Amazon has got the right one.

Final prognosis:
It'll be different from the other albums, but don't be afraid.
Get it, but don't go out of your way. Do that for Prophecy.

Kataklysm fan for life. Trust what I say.

Predictable and cheezy. I sold my copy of this CD. You can sense the forthcoming sell-out. They tried so hard to make all these songs "catchy". Kataklysm have gotten worse and worse as time goes on; not that they were anything special to begin with.

I would recommend earlier Kataklysm. Try Sorcery or The Mystical Gate of Reincarnation.

Well as my friend went in the cdstore and bought him "kataklysm's album epic: the poetry of war" i realy thought to myself they must be an amazing deathmetal so as he puts this cd on his stereo from the first track to the last i was just like "can we play some cannibal corpse,obituary, or ,skinless, please ?" and he got mad because he thought i would like this...Ha! Kataklysm is by far the most weak deathmetal band i heard in a while mediocre ? Yes! Horrible? Yes! Do not waste your money on this crap insted go for skinless because those guys make kataklysm run for their money!

This is a killer record. A great step in the evolution of their sound and songwriting. This is death metal done right. If you don't own any Kataklysm yet, DEFINITELY start with 'Shadows and Dust' though, but you can't go wrong with this cd.