Catharist – Eternal Ekur [Full Length, 2020]

If you have never heard of Catharist, it’s about time you do. Catharist, which based in Scotland, plays Melodic Death Metal with Progressive and Technical thrown in between. Their latest full length, Eternal Ekur was released end of July 2020.

Eternal Ekur initially sent me into confusion. One second they sounded like Morbid Angel’s little brother, another second they transformed into Abigail William’s doppelganger and then out of nowhere they sounded like The Black Dahlia Murder with cosmic synth thrown into the mix. But hey, why not have some Swedish Melodic Death Metal sprinkled to complete the equation, yeah? After everything settled down, I came into conclusion this is a brave, well-crafted Prog-Melodic Death Metal release. 

You see, while the album seems like having episodes of bipolar, the dynamic feels natural and almost subtle. With the guitars sounding crisp clear, sharp with tendency to flirt with Prog-Tech style, the drums constantly pounding in the background, keyboards hovering in atmospheric/ambient-like manner, in fact almost like synth used by Burzum in Filosofem. The vocals are less likely associated with standard Melodic Death Metal style, instead leaning towards Deathcore high shrieks, which for some reason, reminds me of Ovid’s Withering. And to top that off, Eternal Ekur also employs clean singing (the epic one, not whiny Post-HC technique). All those are stacked into each other, and then crafted to make it seamless. Which they somewhat, managed to achieve it. I find Eternal Ekur is an interesting album to listen and enjoy. With scores of influences under their sleeves and attempting to craft different style from their contemporaries. have a listen if you’re curious to know how Melodic Death Metal would sound if they try to sound spacey and weird.

Eternal Ekur is now available in digital download format.

FFO: Morbid Angel, The Black Dahlia Murder, Abigail Williams