Kataklysm - Serenity In Fire
Serenity In Fire picks right up from where it's predecessor "Shadows And Dust" left. The biggest and best difference is the songs and production. As usual Guitarist and Producer J-F Dagenais tweaked the knobs ever so sweetly to sonically torture all who dare to listen to this molten slab of metallic extremity.
The songs are as catchy as a Brittany Spears number one hit, at least as far as metal goes! HAHA Seriously though, the choruses to these tunes will drill into your brain with ease and stay there like that earwig thing in that Star Trek "The Wrath Of Kahn" movie.
So if you want an extreme metal album you can actually remember then check this album out.

Oh there are blast beats as expected but they are kept in check and employed only when needed. Chunky, fat, chugga chugga guitars meld with the drums and bass with machine like precision. Vocals are death style but intelligible. There are black metal screeches that double up on the death style sometimes and a flavor of clean, but not squeaky clean, vocals pop up too.

Really what Katakylsm have done is to zero in on how to make a blistering extreme metal album that contains melody, catchy hooks, and utter brutality. Beauty and the Beast if you will, all wrapped up in one flawless album.

Old fans of the band will no doubt love it and hordes of new fans, like myself, are sure to dig this effort from these northland (Canada) extremers! So mark another notch in the belt of the Canadian metal scene for raising and keeping the bar high for quality metal music.

If you enjoyed Arch enemy's last rant then you'd have no problem getting into this.
The Ambassador Of Pain, As I Slither, and Serenity In Fire are my personal picks for standout tracks but they all kill and there is not an ounce of filler present.

The album, like I said before, is flawless! Under our rating system though i can't give a 10 because it doesn't rate as masterpiece status simply for the reason that it is not astoundingly new to extreme metal and it doesn't represent a pioneering milestone in this style. It is however at the top of the heap and will make my favs list of 2004 for sure. So i will get as close as i can and rate this beast a 9.5/10
There is a full length, quality sounding mp3 on the web site for you to DL and check out and i think you'll agree this band is tight and the musicianship stellar. I can guarantee if you like that song you will like the whole album!

Written by David
Thursday, June 3, 2004
Show all reviews by David

Ratings

David: 9.5/10

Members: No members have rated this album yet.


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RevelationZ Comments


Comment by Pat (Anonymous) - Wednesday, June 23, 2004
9.5 is a stretch for me. Try 8.0.


Comment by The Fat Friar (Anonymous) - Thursday, June 24, 2004
What a stupid and useless comment man!



Comment by Steen (Staff) - Thursday, June 24, 2004
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Comments: 518
@Fat Friar
In all honesty, I think your comment takes the first place in the "Stupid and useless comments chart".

Steen

Posted by Steen (Staff)
Thursday, June 24, 2004

Comment by The Fat Friar (Anonymous) - Thursday, June 24, 2004
@Steen

Well cool!
You're entitled to your opinion.

Opinions are like assholes....everyone has one and they usually stink!:)


Comment by Pat (Anonymous) - Wednesday, July 14, 2004
You want an explanation (as if it matters)? None of the songs seem to have much of any melody. Not that the album's mindlessly loud, but it doesn't compare to Arch Enemy's AOR. The mechanical speed drumming didn't give me a positive impression, just sounded noisy. It has a hell of alot of intensity, I'll give it that much, but not quite 9.5 material.


Comment by The Fat Friar (Anonymous) - Thursday, July 15, 2004
Yeah it does matter to me....I like to know what people mean when they say something like that. Makes a helluva lot more sense to me now than "9.5 is a stretch for me.Try 8.0" did then hence it being a useless comment! We both agree it is not a bad album by any means and that is well and good. It really impressed me and there is melody and it's in the catchy choruses but by no means is it the same melody as Arch Enemy makes. I don't think the two really even compare. Arch Enemy are more Swedish sounding in the melodies and Kataklysm are just a brutal freaking death metal band....i think there is a big difference in style. So in the vein of that type of extreme metal they really are one of the bands at the top of the heap and deserve the high rating i gave them. It is only my opinion but from some of the reviews i have read after writing mine i am certainly not alone in my close to perfect rating of the album. I reveiwed Arch Enemy on here as well.....what did you think of that rating? Thanks for writing back and explaining where you are coming from....it's very much appreciated!:)


Comment by Pat (Anonymous) - Thursday, August 19, 2004
By that rationale, you were contradicting yourself. Telling me my comment is stupid isn't any less useless or stupid. I'm giving out my opinion, the explanation kind of goes without saying; I just don't fucking like it that much! You want someone to go deeper into it, just ask.


Comment by The Fat Friar (Anonymous) - Friday, August 20, 2004
@Pat

Ok dude whatever!...Try smiling or would that be a "stretch" for you?!




Comment by Pat (Anonymous) - Friday, August 27, 2004
Now you're actually going off track. Talk about useless comments. Nice touch on the "whatever", guess you couldn't settle without the last word.


Comment by The Fat Friar (Anonymous) - Friday, August 27, 2004
obviously we aren't getting anywhere with this whole battle....i said a i appreciated you clarifying your comment...guess that is not good enough..... so why don't we call it a day on this one? Please!
Now you can have the last word.......


Comment by Pat (Anonymous) - Sunday, August 29, 2004
Yeah, truce, I'm acting like a loser.


Comment by Pat (Anonymous) - Tuesday, September 14, 2004
Never noticed this before, but... As I Slither sounds like a cheap rip of Pantera's A New Level.


Comment by Pat (Anonymous) - Tuesday, September 14, 2004
That reminds me. We need a review of Vulgar Display Of Power.


Comment by The Fat Friar (Anonymous) - Tuesday, September 14, 2004
YEah man i can hear some Panteric similarities...lotsa chunkiness going on!

I was not a huge Pantera fan ever so if we review VDOP it won't be me doing it i'm afraid....who knows i may like them now....might give it a listen again and if it loves me the right way i'll shoot a few words about it for ya!




Comment by Joe Nuts (Anonymous) - Monday, August 7, 2006
The only Kataklysm albums that matter are the ones with Sylvain on vocals. Everything after that is pussy. The new vocalist tries to sound extreme and heavy but it just sounds like every other death metal band. Sylvain was extreme and unique. Get him back in the the band and then maybe they won't suck anymore.











Review by David
None

Released by
Nuclear Blast - 2004

Tracklisting
1) The Ambassador Of Pain
2) The Resurrected
3) As I Slither
4) For All Our Sins
5) The Night They Returned
6) Serenity In Fire
7) Blood On The Swans
8) 10 Seconds From The End
9) The Tragedy I Preach
10) Under The Bleeding Sun


Supplied by VME


Style
Extreme Metal

Related links
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Kataklysm - Official Website

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