Mathcore and groovy down-tempo aggression!

Hailing from Chemnitz, Katatura is a German metal band that was founded in just about the year 2006. The band comprises of five members, having totally different races and backgrounds (Hungary, Russia, Indonesia, Thailand, France and Germany!), which is quiet stunner about the band how these guys could actually get along and collaborate to form a band and consequently make music. However, as the CD booklet says, the members are Awinier Nurdin on drums, Djon on bass guitar, Andreas Glathe on vocals, Daniel Kiss and Anawin Chalomseema on guitars. I only know of Djon, who is a really nice guy.
Anyways, I got introduced to Katatura at and earlier time this fall, hearing updates about a debut album in progress and other stuff, and since I was kind of musically idle at that time, I thought of giving a shot to something new. They play some blend of down-tempo groove metal, djent and mathcore. Using unusual time signatures, prominent bass sound and distinctive polyrhythmic guitar, they make pieces that are best described as complicated. Some music that I’ve never been into, which sustains my point of listening to that album; trying something new.
“In Two Minds” is the offspring of almost four years of work, but it wasn’t until September 2009 that the band actually embarked into recording at the Liquid Aether Audio studio. Starting off with drums and ending with bass guitars that were eventually recorded in 2010.

The album starts off with an impressive intro that, at its first half, somehow conjures the images of underground crypts of black metal with the undistorted guitar playing that gives you shivers, evolving, however, to introduce some kind of intimidating clean vocals alongside the intermittent heavy guitar riffing accompanied with vintage long screams. This intro can easily ensure you that you’re about to hear an album that has effort put into it.

Comes next, the core of the album with a very impressive elemental diversity in the music. Meaning that, the track “Direction Of Death” for instance, starts with clean guitars then gives way to distorted guitars, drums and growls, another track “Ego” opens with a completely different approach; acoustic guitar, bass in the background and then comes the aggressive shouting with a very crafty entrance for intermittent guitars and eventually bass before getting into the core of the song, another track “Nothing Lasts Forever” opens in a very “djent” way with the break-downs..etc. That really sustains my point; there are some serious efforts exerted throughout this whole album, I mean that’s an album that really deserves kudos for the effort, no matter what do you think about the music or what does it have to do with your taste; the guys really did their best on this one, putting in consideration that it’s their debut.

The sixth track on the album “Allusion” is an interlude that comes in a really timely juncture on the album; it’s merely a bass solo that shows how skillful and creative my friend Djon is. What are also worth mentioning are Andreas Glathe’s vocals; he did a great job brutalizing the music with his aggressive grunts and growls coming right from the guts. Also the rest of the band did quiet a good job conducting the very complicated polyrhythmic guitar playing and the very groovy drumming that’s perfectly keeping up with the rhythm and maintaining the desired harmony.

Lyrics on “In Two Minds” fairly fit the music; they reflect rebellious thoughts and thoughts about anger, death and self-improvement.

Overall, Katatura is a promising German band that craftily merges djent and groove metal with mathcore. They’re devoted to what they do, hence the lucidity of their great efforts all over the album “In Two Minds”. So, if you’re a mathcore fan, like bands like Meshuggah or generally into groove metal, you should give Katatura’s “In Two Minds” a go, and if not, you should also do because it’s something new and you won’t lose anything So, in the end, in terms of mathcore and djent; “In Two Minds” is a very good piece of work that deserves commendation for the efforts that are put into it.

Highlights: The Thin End Of The Wedge, Allusion, Ego.

Karim.