Katechon - Man, God, Giant

KATECHON - Man, God, Giant (Nuclear War Now! - CD 2013)

I do admit that I discovered the music of Katechon pretty late, but as they say “better late, than never”, right? Sadly I missed the vinyl version of  “Man, God, Giant”, but at least I have the CD and have been spinning it countless times in the past week. And damn, I can only agree with opinions, which say that Katechon are another great Norwegian black metal band. Yes, they are and that makes me think that the scene in this country is again so damn exciting. I’m not gonna even mention all these new names and one certain record label, which is strongly responsible for all the attention and hype for new Norwegian bands, but it surely is something exciting. Anyway, Katechon hit strongly with “Man, God, Giant” and surely deserves your support and interest.

The band comes from Trondheim and is a five piece, but to be honest, there are no well known names in the line up, even if some of these guys had smaller or bigger episodes in bands like Sarke, Thorns or Wallachia. It’s interesting though that when I listen to the music, I don’t really sense that many similarities of Katechon sound and style to what comes from Norway usually. Frankly speaking, I would rather connect this band to the North American extreme bestial death / black metal scene… but who cares, right? The music is definitely damn savage, vicious aggressive and harsh as fuck, sometimes with almost punkish simplicity. And for sure it originates in bands like Darkthrone (“A Blaze…” era!) on one hand and Blasphemy on the other, with some essential influences of very old Bathory. I am quite surprised, positively though, with the relatively cleaner, but still on the obscure side, production, which fits well the sounds that Katechon spits forth with cruel, sadistic passion. And even if you cannot say that “Man, God, Giant”  is anything extra spectacular or original, the album kicks ass brutally and with no mercy, delivering a bunch of great, straight forward tracks that shall crush you instantly. Their recipes for each song are quite simple, the riffs are not technical, Katechon doesn’t show off with fuckin guitar solos (OK, there are few, but not in the virtuoso way, if you know what I mean), instead it’s just straight forward and violent music. Simple, but effective.

And if you’re not into fast, raw and bestial sounding, morbid death / black metal, then don’t even try to remember the name Katechon, as it will have no use for you. But in case you do worship such sounds, then “Man, God, Giant” should be a very interesting recommendation. Check this album, released on cult Nuclear War Now!, there’s also a second full length released recently (called “Coronation”), which I definitely need to grab… but in the meantime it’s “Man, God, Giant” blasting loud.

Final rate: 70/100