Kataklysm

I’m a “metal” (used in quotes here because I sometimes deviate from playing metal on my show because of my short attention span and my belief that - OH LOOK A SHINY THING!) DJ at a college/community station in Canada. This means I have a wide range of material that I can play. The only real guideline I have to meet is that a percentage of the music I play needs to be Canadian. Also, CJLO tells me that some of my show needs to be new music. Now I’m a person that likes efficiency, so if I can find something that is both Canadian and new, well, I just get “pleased as punch.” Here’s the trouble though: Canadian metal artists either aren't consistently releasing new stuff or aren’t sending it to us at CJLO (hint hint, nudge nudge). This means that I normally have to get either something Canadian or something new, which means I have less time to play things that are neither, which means I become sad.

So imagine my happiness when Kataklysm released their newest album, Heaven’s Venom. It was both new and Canadian, so naturally I went to it without hesitation, and was pretty happy with the results. Of course, I’ve been happy with their output in the past, so I had no reason to think I wouldn’t this time. I was happy to see that the band’s “northern hyperblast”, as they dub it, or “awesome” as I call it, was in full effect for this album.

Now I’ve been hard on death metal albums in the past, but for some reason this album didn’t force me into a state of boredom the way others have as of late. I can’t really explain it, because, really, if you like one Kataklysm album, the chances are that you’ll like all Kataklysm albums; they have a formula that works for them and they stick to it. This usually leads me to get bored with a band quickly (see Shadows Fall) or cause me to hate what they’re doing outright (see Linkin Park).

So does this sound like other Kataklysm albums? Yes. If you like death metal and blast beats and angry vocals, will you like this? Probably. Is it a huge genre defining album the likes of which has an originality all its own? Not so much. It borrows from pretty much all other cues of the genre, and for that matter other Kataklysm albums; but hey, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it, am I right? The album sounds great, the song writing is aggressive, the blast beats are brutal, and basically everything is pretty damn great about it.

So, if you’re in need of some metal “comfort food”, check out this album. You won’t be blown away, but you’ll feel better, and sometimes that’s all you need.

-Andrew Wixq hosts Grade A Explosives on Thursdays from 3-5pm