PANDEMONIUM - The Ancient Catatonia (OLD TEMPLE - CD 2013)
When speaking about such albums as “The Ancient
Catatonia” I must go back first to the times, when I just started listening to
metal – and that was around 1991. Back in those days the music market in Poland
was still trying to build something after the communism’s fall in 1989 and there
wasn’t anything like copyright law or something like that in the beginning. We
– metalheads – have been then blessed by many pirate companies, which were copying
hundreds of metal albums “from the West”; something what wasn’t given to the Polish
metal fans in the 80’s. If one wanted to buy original version of the tape,
licensed to Metal Mind for instance, he must have paid twice or three times as
much as for those pirates, so basically every metalhead’s collection was filled
with the “illegal” cassettes. So was mine. My first original tapes, which I
have bought, were of the Polish bands, as these cassettes were not as
expensive… So, I was really digging what Carnage Records or Baron Records have
been releasing. Sure, many of these bands were not as good as those from US or
UK, but that didn’t matter – I, as a 12-13 years old kid – had a chance to get
to know some great music anyway, even if I had no idea what the underground
actually was. I remember I was listening to lot tapes, of bands like Betrayer,
Hate, Christ Agony, Armagedon, Ghost, Vader, Quo Vadis, Violent Dirge, Hazael…
and that was something great. Another name, which really became an integral
part of my youth was Pandemonium and their “The Ancient Catatonia” cassette,
which Baron has released in 1992. Arrghh, the music from this cassette was
something way darker and sinister than anything else I have heard so far – I
got to know them even before Samael! And I guess Pandemonium – along with
Christ Agony and Taranis – was the first band, which could have been called
black metal, which I have listened to in my life. That cassette, which I had
back then, has been listened to so many times, that it basically was ruined
after some time, so for many years I had no chance to hear “The Ancient
Catatonia” – except a CDR copy, which someone did for me around 2003. I
actually hoped a couple of years ago that I’ll have a chance to buy an original
Baron CD version, but that turned out to be way too expensive for me. Later I
hoped that if someone re-released “Devilri” demo on vinyl then “The Ancient
Catatonia” will also get such an awesome treatment… but no. But my waiting has
finally finished one morning, when I got an e-mail announcing that Old Temple
will release “The Ancient Catatonia” again on CD!!!!!! Ha, I didn’t hesitate
even for a second and putted my order for this album. Now I am listening to it
over and over again and have that fleshback memory of my youth and all those
good old days… and it feels like it was yesterday. But the greatest thing is
that this music from “The Ancient Catatonia” hasn’t aged at all, it still
sounds so wonderfully fresh and amazingly good… I have then no doubt that
definitely this album belongs to the best materials ever recorded on the Polish
territory. This is our classic!
I must say that Old Temple did a very good job
with the re-release of “The Ancient Catatonia”. Not only the CD itself sounds
just fantastic, but also the booklet looks great. It has the original lyrics
plus some old photos… but it also contains quite few scans from the old Polish
fanzines, which had interviews with Pandemonium. Similar thing has been done
for the “Devilri” LP, actually, but it definitely is a great thing and a killer
supplement to the music. OK, if anyone foreign will put his hands on this CD,
he may feel a bit sad, as all interviews are in Polish, but who would care
about that? If you cannot read anything and don’t wanna learn this language,
then focus on the music!
Pandemonium has always been called “a Polish
Samael”. When listening to “The Ancient Catatonia” one can surely hear why, as
the atmosphere of the music is very similar to such cult LPs as “Worship Him”
or “Blood Ritual”, so are some of the riffs, which are alike to the Suiss’ cult
style, mainly focused on relatively slow or mid paced tempos, having this
excellent hypnotic, almost trance feeling, when the songs are built by long,
instrumental passages, played by guitars mainly (some additional instruments
also appear, but rather sporadically) and then it turns out that sometimes the
vocals are like an addition and you’ll almost not notice their presence,
focusing on those riffs so much. I must say that I like it a lot, especially
that the quality of these riffs and arrangements, as well as of all songs’
structures is just spotless… And as for those comparisons to Samael… well,
there surely are many similarities, no doubt, but at the same time Pandemonium
has also its original style, you’ll notice it when listening to “The Ancient
Catatonia” carefully… The music is often more melodic and also the appearance
of such additional instruments as violin or acoustic guitars gives it more
personal touch. Besides, another obvious source of influence would I guess be
Celtic Frost – just listen to “The Black Arts” and tell me what do you think…
Meanwhile such “Winter” is probably the most atmospheric song of all, but its
dark music doesn’t feel too soft or something, it is still a very good song. And
“Different Part” is opened by the riff, which is a classic doom metal riff,
originating in the good old Black Sabbath!
I must say that even if the whole album is
quite long – with almost an hour of music – it doesn’t feel so and it
definitely is nothing boring or monotonous. What’s more, I can call the
experience of listening to this music as some sort of journey, where every next
song is kind of new place to visit. But it is almost impossible to choice your
favourites from it. For sure “The Majesty” stands above the rest of the
material as one of the best songs, with some epic parts in it and great
arrangements, which use violin here and there. But I honestly think that the
whole material is just even and every song has something incredibly good to
offer. No fillers here, only killers!
For the end I must also point out that the
production of “The Ancient Catatonia” is just fantastic. It – just as the whole
material – also didn’t age at all, still sounds really good and I think I can
say that the sound of this LP is one of the best of all Polish releases of that
time. It is clean and powerful, but at the same time it has a nice raw and
harsh edge, what gives a killer effect and helps the music to achieve a dark
and eerie atmosphere. In many ways “The Ancient Catatonia” is just a perfect
record, really… I cannot see anything what would be done bad here, the music is
perfect, the sound also, the whole artwork – ah just look at that killer logo
and pentagram on it… and what about that evil looking Pazuzu figure (“…figure
in black…” hehe) on the back cover? Fantastic stuff. I highly recommend you
then getting this album right now, if you have a chance… and I hope that
someone will think also about releasing its vinyl version at last!
Standout tracks: “The Majesty”, “Unholy
Existence”, “The Black Arts”, “Winter”
Final rate: 95/100
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