Katapult – A Fistful of Truth review and interview with Johan Norström

If you´re wondering why in the flaming zombieapocalypsehell this particular prognerd is doing an interview and writing a review of a no-holds-barred thrash metal band you can relax as I have the credentials needed. You see, I´m old. Really terribly ancient Egypt old. So when the first and second wave of thrash metal came to be in the early eighties I was there.
And I bloody loved it! Slayer´s “Hell Awaits”, Metallica´s tour de force “Master of Puppets” and Testaments “The Legacy” are records that I always will love and cherish. And when death metal started to rear it´s ugly and unholy head I took it to heart as well. So I think I´m qualified to review something heavier than say Symphony X.

This four track EP is one mean, resentful bastard of a record. When opener “Siege, Destroy, Annihilate” starts, it does so with powerhouse vocalist Johan Norström shrieking like a Nazgul with a score to settle. The music follows suite with ripping riffage and pounding drums.
When Norström´s glass-gargling voice roars the rousing chorus:
“We´ll tear your walls down
We´ll burn your homes (to the ground)!” he does so with the conviction and resolve of a once broken human being now hellbent on reactive revolution. Brilliant stuff and I heartily recommend checking out the bands promovideos, see links below.

“P.R.O.F.I.T” then kicks off with some nice, almost Purusam like melodies. And the spirit of the unsung heroes of northern hardcore/power metal echoes throughout the song, weaving harmonies with a harsh and heartfelt message. “I’ll beat a dead horse” is the chestbeating slogan that packs quite a punch.

Next up is the title track “A Fistful of Truth”. And what a great song it is. A Slayer-esque riff kicks off proceedings and seamlessly leading into a pumping, staccatto laden verse. I must praise the impeccable musiciansship here. There is so much going on at the same time and some of it borders to Terrortory territory (tada!). This is probably my favourite track with a hidden depth that this prog geek really approves of. Repeated listens is recommended and I promise it will pay off.

“Láppel Du Vide” closes this snarling beast of a record by hitting you repeatedly in the solar plexus. It also contains the single best riff that I´ve heard in a long time. It should have been used more often but that´s the sign of what I like to call “The Golden Riffage”. When it´s over you´re left begging and hoping for more. Check it out from 2.43 and forward. When those basedrums come in looking for a ruckus there is only one way to go: relent and surrender to the might of a formidable debut EP. This is one repeat friendly minialbum. Easy to take in but with a depth and meaning sorely lacking in many bands today. Kudos!

https://johannorstrom.se/katapult/fistful%20181028.jpg
Katapult – A Fistful of Truth
Independent EP
Release date: April 1st 2020
Rating: 8/10

I had the opportunity to have a little chinwag with singer Johan Norström.
Hi Johan and thanks for taking your time having a little with me about Katapult! Can you tell me a little about the inception of this international “all-star band” and a bit about the members?

– All star band”… If you think flattery will get you more draft mp3s you’re definitely right! Me and Florian was working on a photo shoot during a festival in Umeå a couple of years back. We were shooting most of the artists so there was like five minutes of super intense work, and then sitting on our asses for 55 minutes. Needless to say there was a lot of nonsense going about, and if you put musicians in the same room some of that nonsense will be “Dude, we should start a band!”. The latest statistics I’ve seen about that kind of dialogue is that only 0,8 % of bands formed during such conditions actually create music, but we did!

Florian was in a band called Arcturon a while back, pretty similar to my other band Terrortory in lots of ways. We had similar experiences of putting blood, sweat, tears, money and time into our respective musical endeavours with very little to show for it when it comes to ”success”, whatever that may be. So we agreed that we wanted Katapult to be ”low effort”, we didn’t want to butt heads over ideas, basically we wanted as little resistance as possible in all steps of the way. So we started throwing riffs at each other and found some kind off creative synergy that’s very rare in my experience. Since we basically decided that we’d say ”Yes” to every idea unless we immediately had a better one ourselves things went really fast, and we had written about 12 songs in a couple of months.
Joel joined during the tracking of the EP, he was originally just going to guest as a solo guitarist but him and Florian clicked and the rest is history. I haven’t met Joel yet but he’s giving a good impression in our group chat! He is in a band called FallDown that plays some kind of rock n roll with a metal touch.

The music is much more based on thrash metal than your other band, Terrortory. I hear a lot of The Haunted, a bit of Testament in there but also quite a bit of originality. What are your influences?

– The Haunted is the influence, haha. When we started out we talked about what album we wanted to hear that most likely will never be recorded. We agreed upon another The Haunted album with Peter Dolving, so we decided we’d write and perform that, basically.

This is one pissed off ep. It goes for the jugular from the get go. Can you shine a little light on the lyrical content?

– Well it’s pretty wide spread. “Siege, Destroy, Annihilate” and “P.R.O.F.I.T.” is about waging war on capitalism, “A Fistful of Truth” is about idiots that don’t listen to reason, “L’appel du Vide” is french for ”The call of the void” which is a term used to describe that attraction to doing stupid and dangerous things, like when you’re walking over a bridge and suddenly feel like jumping over the railing.

I must admit that I loved the concept of the lyric video for “Siege, Destroy, Annihilate”. How did that come about?

– Uhm. I have no idea, haha. It just came to me, I guess. It’s just part of the ”low effort” manifesto I guess!

What is in store for Katapult?

– Right now we’re working on promoting the EP ”A Fistful of Truth” but we’re gonna start recruiting drummers to track EP #2 as soon as possible, hopefully releasing that before this years end. We’ve been sitting on these songs for too long and are eager to get ’em out there!

“A Fistful of Truth” is digital only so far, any plans for a physical release?

– No, not really. Unless no one comes along waving cash in front of us. Of course we’d want to, but we’re not interested in investing money in boxes of CDs that’ll be forgotten in our closets.

Any last words of wisdom to your audience?

– Nah. Blow the capitalist system to pieces, it obviously can’t keep us safe from harms way

Rating: 8 capitalist crushing truthbombs out of 10

Videos:
“Siege, Destroy, Annihilate:

“A Fistful of Truth”:

Recorded and produced by Katapult.
Mixed by Johan Norström and Henrik Wiklund.
Mastered by Henrik Wiklund.
Cover by Johan Norström.

Performed by
Johan Norström – vocals
Florian Moritz – guitars
Joel Purificacion – guitars
Stefan Vidmark – bass
Stefan Maier – drums
Tommy Nilsson – drums
Simon Corner – drums

Tracklist:
01. Siege, Destroy, Annihilate
02. P.R.O.F.I.T.
03. A Fistful of Truth
04. L’appel du Vide