I have been following Moscow’s Katalepsy since their Musick Brings Injuries ep.  Debut album Autopsychosis in 2013 became one of my favorite brutal slam death metal albums.  That high quality output continued a few years later with the sophomore album Gravenous Hour – another excellent example of the band putting out monstrously heavy music.

And now we get the third album, Terra Mortuus Est and yes some things have shifted with the band.  The only line-up shift is welcoming back past drummer,  Andrey Patsionov.  Aside from that the band remaining intact and to have that many members intact after multiple releases shows continuity and the band is comfortable with their blend of brutal death metal and slam death metal.

Opting for longer songs, we get 11 songs in 50 minutes and “Closer than Flesh” comes out the starting gates with a strong deathcore sound.  So that is the biggest influence is more core added to their sound.  Long time vocalist Igor Filimontsev going for a more bro-core type of vocal style.  For the brutal death metal fan this may be a turn off.  But don’t fret too much, he still brings the growls.  He is just pronouncing his words a little more forcefully and definitely has scaled back some of his guttural delivery.  Regardless, the opener has plenty of blasts, slams and their signature awesome bass guitar slap sound courtesy of  Anatoly Shishilov.  Yes the bass guitar is as prevalent as ever.

Anton Garasiyev and Dmitry Dedov’s guitars sound ferocious on this album and the holy shit moment starting with the isolated guitar riffs on “Night of Eden”.  Monstrous and heavy.  Igor letting out a nice growl and then going back into his bro-core style moments, but still sounding very powerful.  The song goes back n forth with the blasts and the start and stop parts at the 2.10 moments are vicious and just plan ass-kicking.  Katalepsy throwing in more guitar solos this time around as well.  Some squealing, a little too much squealing solos on this song, and they are piped in quite high in the mix.  Then right back into a very catchy riff and slam.  Glad to see the band return to this guitar riff, since it works quite well on this song.

“The God of Grave” has a nice blast in the beginning with some killer slap bass guitar moments that are plucking the potato chips right off that dirty ass shirt of yours.   Great rolling drums and double bass action.  The rhythm section at the 1.20 part is great and this is definitely the strongest the band has sounded, rhythmically speaking, on any of their releases.  See that continuity of remaining to together definitely has its advantages!  The beatdown slam at the 2.40 part is outstanding and then Igor letting out a really nice long guttural growl.  It’s disgusting, filthy and sounds like a slimy clogged-sewer pipe.  The slam part is terrific and this is one of the best songs Katalepsy has ever crafted.

The rest of Terra Mortuus Est follows a similar path.  Blast, slam, forceful vocals, more guitar solos and glad to see some melody in the guitar harmonies.  The album cover is really great but gone is that nice Katalepsy band logo – in place now is a boring font spelling out their name.  The band paying homage to their classic logo by placing the K, in the old logo, on the flag and some of their symbols a top the demon’s head.  The bro-core vocals may throw you off, but Igor still goes guttural a bunch and throws in tons of growls.  Sounds like maybe the band is trying to bring in a wider fanbase and I cannot fault them for that, because at the end of the day this is still Katalepsy, more mature, though, but still brutal AF.  Throwing in a few more guitar solos certainly is not a bad thing. I really enjoy the production, except for those guitar solos, piped in much higher in the mix, at times, they drown out the rest of the music.

Overall I am loving Terra Mortuus Est.  It stands alongside their prior two albums excellently and this is one of the better brutal slam death metal albums for 2020.  Go out and get it!

[Visit the band's website]

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