One of my favorite traditions in metal is the one-person project. Those musicians who have a clear vision and take it upon themselves to craft it without restraint or compromise from anyone else, pulling in outsiders where necessary just to flesh things out. Of course, most of the projects that come to mind are very focused, or perhaps limited, in sound, but some of them, like Hungary’s Thy Catafalque, go the opposite way and freely throw everything at the wall to see what sticks. After twenty-five years creating delightful avant garde concoctions of folk, electronica, extreme metal, and progressive-minded good ol’ fashioned rock, you’d almost expect Tamás Kátai to have run out of ideas. And yet, as proven by their twelfth album XII: A gyönyöru álmok ezután jönnek, Thy Catafalque isn’t showing any signs of slowing down.
Now, XII (as I’ll refer to it for brevity) isn’t an album that pulls out many new tricks for Thy Catafalque. But given how many elements the project works in regularly, that’s hardly a gripe. The album is still as wildly diverse as any seasoned listener could hope for, even if it’s less directly heavy than the previous album (the excellent Alföld). Kátai knows exactly how to apply the pressure when needed for impact, while leaving much of the rest of the album lighter and airier, and it very immediately struck me on first listen just how well Kátai paced XII. The intensity of the album ebbs and flows in a beautifully symmetrical way, and the progression feels natural throughout.
To wit, the bookends of the album (“Piros kocsi, fekete éj” and the title track “A gyönyörü álmok ezután jönnek”) are straight up rock bangers featuring killer hooks and some great vocals that would have me singing along happily if I actually knew Hungarian. The whiplash from that opener to the crushing one-two of “Mindenevö” and “Vasgyár” feels absolutely punishing. The former works a blend of black metal and choral doom that feels menacingly regal, while the latter carries a deathy thrash energy that begs for headbanging, intercut with fun moments of quiet prog stabbing through.
Likewise, the penultimate duo of the album brings the hammer down, with the calm, soothing first half of “Ködkiraly” (replete with synths and beautiful singing) getting crushed under the weight of its lurching second half, while “Aláhullás” punches hard and fast. Between the two, Thy Catafalque leans much harder on their folky influences to tremendous effect. The back half of “Világnak világa” sails along with an energetic folk melody and some of my favorite vocal hooks of the album, while “Lydiához” features a marvelous duet over some of the album’s prettiest stretches. Throw in the more succinct “Nyárfa, nyírfa” (gotta love that saxophone/synth solo perfectly subbing in for bagpipes) and the wild feeling of the instrumental “Vakond” with its cool keyboard solos and fun Spaghetti Western-esque whistling, and XII is all but guaranteed to keep your attention front to back.
It’s such a diverse and wildly fun album, and the performances throughout are just about perfect. As per usual for Thy Catafalque, Tamás Kátai handles a vast swath of the music himself (holding credits for vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards, and programming), but the album also features more than 20 guests to fill out for singing, horn sections, string sections, or more traditional folk instrumentation. Looking at the sheer scale of what Kátai has assembled for XII, he really lives up to the concept that metal can feel like modern classical. He’s constructed a bit of a symphony here, just in the form of great avant garde metal. And the fact that all those elements, recorded across multiple continents have been stitched together in a way that sounds so sonically perfect is an absolute credit to Kátai’s production abilities (as well as collaborator Gábor Vári’s mixing).
XII: A gyönyöru álmok ezután jönnek is a bit of a marvel, honestly. After twelve albums and twenty-five years, Kátai’s work with Thy Catafalque feels fresh and unique, with nary a hint of staleness threatening his patented sonic blend. The complete disregard for genre boundaries does make for an album that can overwhelm when the listener’s not in the proper headspace for it, but the melodies are just so fun and the riffs so infectious that I couldn’t imagine passing up fresh listens for years to come. It may not be my favorite thing Thy Catafalque has created (Geometria, Vadak, and Alföld are all exceptional as well), but Tamás Kátai has never once missed, and XII is a credit to his continued compositional prowess. If you’re one of those music lovers that’s as likely to listen to folk or synth music as you are metal, why not just cut out the middleman and get them all here in one album?
