| Now, Kataklysm is not the first band a person thinks of when the words “death metal” are mentioned; they’re not even the second or the third. They have a fondness for melodic guitar lines, and their vocalist hasn’t got the nether-region growl that’s the watermark of the genre. They don’t worship at the altar of Trey Azagthoth. Like fellow Canadian death-metal overlords Gorguts, their attention to the overall feel of an album is refreshingly sharp; unlike a number of death-metal bands, they’re not afraid to dip now and again into the black-metal palette. So their death-metal credentials are suspect in the eyes of the purists. But it’s important to remember that purists are only interesting at an arm’s length; up close, they’re crashing bores, and their record collections almost never have the cool little out-of-the-way I-never-heard-of-this-before pockets that are the cornerstones of any good record collection. |
