Thy Catafalque are gluttons for metallic punishment on new single ‘Mindenevő’

Even during its initial gestation period, THY CATAFALQUE had already expanded beyond the perceived limits of extreme metal. With each album, Tamás Kátai and his band of collaborators have taken another step beyond the genre’s boundaries, bringing the world’s most vile art form into conversation with the avant-garde.

There’s still a light at the end of Thy Catafalque‘s upcoming twelfth album. But as Kátai winds through its introspective journey into the night, XII: A gyönyörű álmok ezután jönnek revisits the all-consuming heaviness that courses back through the project’s 20-year history. While garnished with plenty of classical flourishes, its meaty new single “Mindenevő” growls like the belly of a metallic beast.

Feast your eyes on the video for Mindenevő: https://youtu.be/yVdYLiEU8GU

The video for “Mindenevő” was created by G13 Film.

A gyönyörű álmok ezután jönnek is still guided by the dreaminess that fans in and outside of Hungary have come to admire about Thy Catafalque. After all, in English, the album’s title translates to ‘The Beautiful Dreams Are Yet to Come‘. “I imagined these songs as a journey into the night”, Kátai says. Finding his way along this path required him to head in a different direction – at least, as far as the production goes. The dark waves of synth that streak through the album’s title track and lead single glow with the faint but familiar reassurance of the dawn.      

Still, journeying through A gyönyörű álmok ezután jönnek can be a rocky road. While the latest single opens with a plucking oud, “Mindenevő” is a full bore feast for bloodthirsty metalheads. The insatiable blast beats and tongue-flicking tremolo picking are cooked over the same blackened fires as Thy Catafalque‘s 1999 debut. “Our last album, Alföld, was very bleak”, Kátai explains. “Adding classical and acoustic instruments helped add a sprig of color to these new songs, but XII still has plenty of metal”. 

Even the progressive flourishes feed the song’s sickening theme. A fretless bass waltzes into the room just as the video’s dinner party succumbs to their insatiable appetite for destruction. “Blood and fat shall course through every vein“, chants a doomy operatic chorus. “We devour everything around us”, Kátai says when asked about the philosophical musings that greased the wheels of “Mindenevő” (which means “Omnivore”). “It’s absurd. The way we consume everything in our path only leads us closer to our demise”.

In the end, the engorged death metal riffs finally eat their fill. Yet as the beastly “Mindenevő” lays to rest amidst a thick delirium of clarinet and French horn, the feeling that’s left churning in the pit of your stomach is pure, unfiltered dread. 

“Human beings do have an animal side”, Kátai says. “Even though some of us strive for purity, in the end, we have to recognize and accept the morbidity of nature”.  

FFO: Sigh, Arcturus, Ihsahn, Dødheimsgard

For two decades, Tamás Kátai was content on sticking to the studio. That changed in 2021, when he and a cast of heavy hitters performed at the Fekete Zaj Festival. This milestone was later committed to memory on Mezolit, but Thy Catafalque has continued to grow into a steady and spectacular live act.

Earlier this year, Thy Catafalque headlined their  first tour of Europe. Now, to celebrate the project’s upcoming twelfth album, Kátai and his ever-growing list of collaborators will perform at four concerts across Europe. This includes two very special sold-out shows at one of Hungary’s most influential underground venues, where they’ll perform songs off XII: A gyönyörű álmok ezután jönnek, along with all ten tracks on the recently reissued fifth album Rengeteg.

During these two special shows at Dürer Kert, Thy Catafalque will be joined by the noisy experimentalists in Shum, labelmate Saor and Kátai‘s old band, Gire.

Thy Catafalque 2024 Concerts:
October 12 – Thessaloniki, Greece, @ Mammothfest [TICKETS]
November 22 – Budapest, Hungary @ Dürer Kert w/ Saor [SOLD OUT]
November 23 – Budapest, Hungary @ Dürer Kert w/ Gire, Shum [SOLD OUT]