THE ALBUM OF THE DAY IS…
KATAKLYSM, IN THE ARMS OF DEVASTATION
Here’s a comment I’m sure I’ll be crucified for: I like Kataklysm better slow than fast. That’s not to say that on this, their 2006 release, these Canadian thrashers don’t do the speed metal thing as well as next the guy, but the moments that truly stand out to me as the most pitiless and haunting are the ones that see the band sludging it up a bit: the breakdown at the end of opener “Like Angels Weeping (The Dark),” or that crushing riff that opens and then repeats throughout the chorus of “Crippled & Broken”- because it actually feels like the SOUND of someone crippled and broken. The song I just can’t shake no matter how hard I try, though, is the mournful epic that closes the disc, “The Road To Devastation.” Vocalist Maurizio Iacono adjusts his deep growl to a howling screech while Jean-Francois Dagenais (guitars), Stephane Barbe (bass), and Max Duhamel (drums) pump out what’s practically a heavy metal funeral dirge, evocative of pallbearers carrying a fallen comrade. The song is so damn good it practically dares you NOT to listen to it on repeat for days on end. I, for one, don’t have the will power to resist.
-AR
Buy In the Arms of Devastation
