Published on Jul 31, 2000
Here we go again… another day, another dive into the world of
grindcore, where deja vu is the order of the day.
But wait – this time, the subject in question isn’t one of a
thousand European death metal acts whose CDs are cluttering my
office. No, this time, the band in question comes from Canada –
Kataklysm, and their fourth long-player
The Prophecy (Stigma Of The Immaculate). Unfortunately, the
end result is simple: same shit, different country.
You would think that this group – vocalist Maurizio Iacono,
guitarist Jean-Francois Dagenais, bassist Stephane Barbe and
drummer Max Duhamel – would have something new and fresh to add to
the field of grindcore. But they stick pretty much to the same
formula that so many bands have been hammering into the ground –
heavy guitar intro, throbbing verses, breakneck speed choruses.
Granted, Kataklysm does try to throw a little more into the mix
than the traditional death and devil mix. “Machiavellian” – at
least, what I could decipher – seems to break the stereotype enough
to make the song fresher than the bulk of the disc. They also try
this on the disc’s closer “Renaissannce,” though the end result is
less pleasant. (Possibly part of the problem is that this track
becomes an epic in the world of grindcore, clocking in at eight
minutes in length.)
If only there were more moments on
The Prophecy (Stigma Of The Immaculate) that took such
musical chances. Regrettably, the bulk of this disc falls into the
same old cookie-cutter metal that has been causing grindcore to go
flat faster than an open soda left in the summer sun. Tracks like
“Manifestation,” “Laments Of Fear & Despair” and
“1999:6661:2000” all just fail to materialize into anything unique
or special.
That’s kind of a shame, because I had hoped that Kataklysm would
have brought something new to the musical table, not being tied
down by the influences of dozens of similar bands from the same
country. And, to some extent, they do introduce a little something
different – but not nearly enough to allow them to break free from
the chains of redundancy.
The Prophecy (Stigma Of The Immaculate), of course, will
probably be hailed as a master work by fans of the genre – and,
make no mistake, I still do like grindcore. But some of us are just
getting tired of hearing the same old thing, group after group,
album after album. Kataklysm had the opportunity to blaze a new
trail in this genre; instead, they merely set foot on it, and leave
it mostly unexplored.