Kataplexis

Footage from a recent show at Broken City in Calgary! - Kataplexis

Brand new song from our recent show with the legendary Napalm Death!!! - Kataplexis

Kataplexis/Breathe Knives – Split
No List Records

Kataplexis and Breathe Knives work like a tongue that has been split in two – both sides now black, green and very infected and stuck right into your soft pink ear with songs from one another ripping through your wax and tickling your brain. With this ten song release, the bands seem like a match made in heaven's cesspool. It's somewhat uncommon to see many split releases these days, with the recent Toxic Holocaust/Inepsy release being a reminder that it is still a product of interest for fans. Breathe Knives had the challenge here: as a band with programmed drums, the limb flaying chaos of Kataplaxis' rhythmic section is tough to duplicate. They do it well on “False Flag”, which has been given the pressure chamber treatment, adding avenues of depraved swagger to the Kataplexis track. “Steel Cheek vs Ice Cream Teeth” begins with a sample from Factotum about one of Bukowski's lays, "Jan was an excellent fuck...she had a tight pussy and she took it like it was a knife that was killing her.” - if not breathing them, why not? This, and the few other Breathe Knives tracks are music to crash your car by. Starting off innocently enough with a bouncing beat or telephone loop, they become ragged quick, as if the smooth part of the roller coaster has the track cut off. On to Kataplexis - “Fuckin Hostie”, “Rippin' Taco's”, “Cocksmoke”, and “Shitguy”are death/grind crunch that add moments of Andreas Kisser esque riffage into the fray – moving along at a break neck pace and never once slowing down to catch a breath. Although short, these songs have moments of ambiance and melody within the chaos. The Breathe Knives cover,“Rebreather” is particularly moody, with sampled chanting under the wasteland of dead rat floater infested sludge. The track brings to mind the Agoraphobic Nosebleed/Isis cover of “Boris” by the Melvins, and is the shining spot on the split. Both bands are notorious already and this adds to the growing legacy of both. Get it while you can.

Ryan Coke
Absolute Underground Magazine - Ryan Coke (Absolute Underground Magazine)

For this review, Metal Made in Canada travels to the western part of Canada. Kataplexis is a Death/Grind band original from Calgary (Alberta). Their first album, Insurrection, is simply amazing. Since I am not a big fan of Grindcore, I first imagined that it would sound like a generic grind album that often provides a cacophony of incessant blasts beats and distorted guitars. I was extremely surprised to uncover something completely different! This album's execution is almost impeccable! Dave Callahan offers a solid drum performance including many double kicks and variant tempos between mid and blast beats (False Flag anybody?) that go perfectly with Jordan Schritt and Erik Anderson's guitars that are fast tempo, precise and that include many tremolos.

Often overlooked in the world of metal, the bass, played by Shayn Hotton offers frequent interesting insertions that come through the melodies while adding depth to them. Kyle Ball' singing performance is also excellent with his guttural and high pitched cries (that are reminiscent of Kevin Sharpe from Brutal Truth) that mix perfectly with the music's aggressive tones.

Perpetual Apathy is one of the best songs on this album, a perfect example where the best elements are brought together to deliver more than 5 minutes of brutality while including a great deal of variations. The members of Kataplexis seem to have found their place on the Death metal/Grindcore scene with their sound quality, songwriting and originality that set them apart the other bands in the genre.

Kataplexis is a great surprise in 2010! By the way, for the labels that may read this critic, the band is not signed yet. I would definitely recommend Kataplexis to all those who enjoy their death metal with a grind twist!

Favourite songs: to name a few, False Flag, Perpetual Apathy, Corpus Callosum - Metal Made In Canada

When I started this review for the split album featuring two of Alberta’s metal bands, namely Kataplexis and Breath Knives, I had never heard of the latter, which is a kind of noise/grime metal band. Since I know pretty much nothing about these genres, my first thought was to just skip this part of the split and dive directly into the Kataplexis review, but after a few listens I felt like sharing some thoughts about Breathe Knives.

As I said earlier, I know pretty much nothing about the noise/grime genres but listening to the Breathe Knives’ songs, I thought that these guys were doing something right here and that noise/grime fans would probably appreciate this. There is no frill in their music; to me this feels like something angry stomping over the world delivering its message through distorted guitars and bass, shrieking vocals and drum machine. Vocal distortion and sampling add a little industrial feeling to the overall ensemble.

Breathe Knives offers you 4 songs on this split, 2 of which are covers from Cherubs and their split partners, Kataplexis. This is the only tracks where you’ll find blast beats as most of their songs, past and present, are usually mid paced. This is a bit far from what I’m used to listen to but I can appreciate what I heard from those four songs. I will definitely keep an eye on them.

Having very much liked Kataplexis’ debut album, Insurrection (see review here), I was looking forward to listening to those new songs. With this split album, I think that the guys from Kataplexis have moved deeper into grindcore territory. With Insurrection I described the music as death metal with a grind twist, but this time I would say things have been reversed to grindcore with a death metal twist packed with the brutality we’re accustomed to find in Kataplexis music.

Packed is the keyword here as we have 6 songs, which would be ok if it wasn’t for the total length of the 6 songs combined which gives only 10 minutes and a half of hearing pleasure. We can even talk about a 5 songs split since the track Fuck Guy is only 6 seconds long. Compared to their debut album, the songs are pretty short, except for the Breath Knives cover, which lasts for over 4 minutes, every song is under the 2 minutes mark, so pay attention to the songs because they come and go by pretty quickly!

That’s about the only complaint I have about these new Kataplexis’ tracks. As I mentioned above, this is still Kataplexis at their most brutal as we know them, I would even say that they have turned the aggressiveness up a notch on this split. The songs are short but they are packed with speed from start to finish. Blast beats and light speed guitar riffs will hit you right in the face. Even the vocals sound more aggressive than before, maybe not as deep but I would say raspier. The bass seems a bit lost among the other instruments though.

You won’t find mid paced sections to cool off as there was on Insurrection. Did I mention blast beats is another keyword here? The only time you’ll get some rest here is with their cover of the Breath Knives song, Rebreather. This song is pretty awesome; the Tibetan monks chanting in the background throughout the song help create an amazing atmosphere. It’s not much different from the original in term of speed and arrangements but it definitely is from what Kataplexis usually plays. Still, it has the Kataplexis signature all over it. It is so heavy!

In short, even though the running time is really short, Kataplexis delivers the goods on this split and I can only wait for their next album and hope that it will be in the same vein but please, with longer songs!

Favorite songs: Shitguy and Rebreather even if it’s a cover, it kicks ass

Breath Knives / Kataplexis split:

1- Wake Up Walt Disney 3:05
2- Steel Cheek vs. Ice Cream Teeth 2:36
3- Stag Party (Cherubs Cover) 2:58
4- False Flag (Kataplexis Cover) 2:53
5- Fuckin’ Hostie 1:43
6- Rippin’ Tacos 1:31
7- Shitguy 1:21
8- Cocksmoke 1:32
9- Fuckguy 0:06
10- Rebreather (Breathe Knives Cover) 4:19 - Metal Made In Canada