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Salt Lake City’s Katagory V strikes back with their fourth
album just a little over a year after their previous offering, The Rising
Anger. It was very interesting to see where the band, that displayed evident
potential on their previous disc, has gone in a year with the same intact line-up.
The opening riff and drum roll in Listen To You, Listen To Me reveal right off the bat that this disc has a heavier feeling than the previous album. I’ve seen some reviews even talk about “thrashiness” but I wouldn’t go that far with the comparison. However, the intensity and rhythmical elements have been upped. Singer Lynn Allers has definitely gotten stronger with his voice and is singing very well indeed. If The Rising Anger had musical vibes of Queensrÿche to show, right now the reference is stronger in the vocals. Allers’ tone goes very close to 80s Geoff Tate on occasions but still retains a personal touch. I really dig the off beat-rhythmics in this opening track. From this point on the same kind of problems arise that were found on TRA. Nothing is flawed on the surface but the songs as a complete package don’t grab you in that superb manner that makes you feel the magnificent burn brought by music at its best. Slight high points can be mentioned. Do Feelings Remain has a nice grooving force and Apologetic Heart raises the speed to more moshable levels. I would actually have liked more speed on the whole record, as the mid-tempo dominance brings it down a bit. Can You Hear Them is a very good acoustic ballad that shows the band’s knack for mellow tunes. The US-only bonus track Enemy is my favourite from the record. The very dreamy (Theater) acoustic intro with some ominous speech samples lead off to excellent lead melodies and solos sprinkled among the prog-flavoured attack of the tune. The tempo shift after the four-minute mark is a nice shot in the proverbial arm. Production-wise, everything is in a nice balance, although the sounds overall
have a very dry, compressed quality to them that can rub more hi-fi -obsessed
listeners the wrong way. But nothing to seriously bitch about. As a whole, Hymns
Of Dissension continues to display Katagory V’s
great technical talent, which is still to manifest itself fully in spectacular
song craft. The are definitely fighting the good fight, so time will tell if
they can hit it creatively where their abilities should reach. |
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Killing Songs : Listen To You, Listen To Me, Apologetic Heart, Can You Hear Them & Enemy |
Aleksie quoted 70 / 100 | |||||
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