I love fall. I’m a very fall, winter, and spring type of guy (I’m available, all you single Metal Girls) my love comes in the form of quality avant-garde, extraordinarily heavy in so many killer Eastern European extreme metal ways… Kroda, Depresy, Blaze of Perdition. The other day I added one of the most insane bands since Master’s Hammer to my internal roster: Thy Catafalque.

This showed up right on the heels of the awesome new Trelldom and so my mind was in just the right frame to want to jam this. From the cover art I thought I was going into a Midsummer soundtrack sort of thing… how wrong I turned out to be.

“Piros kocsi, fekete éj” caught me off guard, I thought it was going to be a nice, breezy introduction to chaos track… I was wrong! It strides, it rumbles like earthshaking thunder. But it moves through you and makes you want to dance around while head banging, a powerful opener in any case and it prepares your ears for what they’re about to experience.

There are moments where I experienced complete joy while listening to XII: A gyönyörü álmok ezután jönnek. The scathing Black Metal, Dimmu Borgir-ish assault of “Mindenevö”; it’s deceptive at first and it just explodes in bombastic, volcanic fashion. It’s followed by “vasgyar” a tidy little devil of a Black Thrash track that goes total Behemoth for the first half of the song, but around 4:36 there’s psychedelic head fucking going on, it’s heavy as a sonofabitch  and it’s another reason why I love this album.

There’s tracks like “Világnak világa” that rage like nobody’s business, huge Hungarian vocals and at the 3:55 point it becomes a semi-industrialized punch. With a flurry of sick keys and an isolated guitar, it’s just a great track among many.

There’s “Nyárfa, nyírfa”, and the hypnotic “Lydiához”,  which shows the range of traditional influences, it’s a beautiful, heavy centerpiece to the record. It’s followed by my absolute favorite track of the year “Vakond” is the most fun I’ve had with a song since Arkona’s “Yarilo”, it’s trippy; yet heavy and it gets your tail feathers shaking. The way it builds towards the end with malicious intent is a real feeling of dread.

“Ködkiraly” is a literal Behemoth (in more ways than one) a huge 7:58 minute track that shifts tempos deftly, it ventures into Cranberries territory at the beginning and then blackening for the second half of the song, it’s so good, and is another reason why XII: A gyönyörü álmok ezután jönnek is more than just a mere Folk Metal album it transcends that label with the melody alone, the way the songs are structured is just magnificent. This is shaping up to be an AOTY runner-up as far as far as originality.

I’m not kidding. This is a rock-solid album, the closing track is also the title track and it brings this fantastic creation to a close with glorious orchestral mixed with the heavy guitars and drums. “Aláhullás” is one of those tracks that’s just biting. It rocks with a Fear Factory vibe circa Demanufacture.

This album hits right in the giblets, and it’s one that fans of Ensiferum, Dimmu Borgir, Arkona, Hawkwind, and Arcturus will surely enjoy, a must-have!

Incidentally, there’s a bonus track that needs to be mentioned called “Babylon”. It’s a straight banger, pounding drums, huge riffs and fun as all get out. But, you need this in your life, so… what are you waiting for?

[Visit the band's website]

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