Kataklysm – Unconquered

4/10

So, getting older is seldom a good thing. You get fatter, grumpier and with a heavy mind you remember all the things that where better when you where young. The two first things is (apparently) hard to avoid but concerning the third aspect, with all that lost glory of yore, it’s actually sometimes only the work of a bit to selective brain.

Sadly enough, Canadian deathsters Kataklysm, with all undesirable clearness shows that the fact that transatlantic Death Metal was far better in the late eighties and early nineties is not an imagination of an over-nostalgic brain, at least with their latest release, ”Unconquered”, in mind.

To be honest I had lite insight in Kataklysm’s soon thirty year long career and actually thought that I was in for a hyper fast, monotonous blast fest, but although ”Unconquered” has its fair share of ultra fast parts (sometimes I get the feeling the record is a mere excuse for drummer Olivier Beaudoin to show of his skills) Kataklysm, for better or worse, incorporate far more elements in their, quiet modern take on Death Metal.

At least you can’t accuse Kataklysm for being tedious and at best, the fast parts is quite brutal and the thrashier parts is often catchy and somewhat entertaining. The worst part is the embodying of some more groovier kind of metal that defiles the songs every now and then and I would go so far to call some of the stuff, although I’m certainly no expert in the genre, ”Nu-Metal”…

I guess that kind of music got its audience to, and even if the performance is spotless, even sometimes impressive and the music is varied and somewhat innovative I can’t help myself thinking ”Why?” ever so often.There are a couple of different ”types” of Death Metal, some off I like more, some I like less, and unfortunately, ”Unconquered” belongs to the later kind.

And by the way, did Kataklysm in all their hip angry melancholy forgot that Death Metal should be all about severed limbs, rotting corpses and drinking copious amounts of beer?