Kataklysm

Temple of Knowledge (Nuclear Blast)
by Scott Hefflon

I doubt this was the band’s intention, but boy did I get a chuckle out of listening to Temple of Knowledge. At first the low volume and overall skimpy production bothered me, reducing the hyperspeed-turns-to-galloping-into-battle drumming to someone tapping their fingers on a countertop, and the annoying tendency to drown out all the music with some all-over-the-map doofus roaring, screaming, snarling, choking, gargling in thirds, octavizing his “bwooooahs!” with a Slayer-esque demon fart… Hey, this is cool shit. I can almost picture the singer sitting down, saying, “OK, during this part I’m going to a triplety-triplety vocal like I just burned my hand and I’m hopping around the room, then I’m going to howl like a demonchild who wants his mommy, and then I’ll layer bassy roars over everything at random intervals, punctuated by what passes for verses and anything else I can layer in there.” The rest of the band, who weren’t listening anyway, say fine, we’re done recording anyway. And what you’re left listening to are vastly varied timings in the songs (hats off to musicians who can jump from hyperspeed to trudging to thrashy without ever missing a beat), occasionally memorable rhythms tied together by chaotic riffing, and a vocal wildman who, for some reason, isn’t safely locked up somewhere.