Throne of Katarsis

An Eternal Dark Horizon

Candlelight 2007

Finally a band that is truly able to capture the majestic and magical years of Norwegian Black metal.  Many have come close and hinted at those roots.  The two Dark minds behind Throne Of Katarsis have managed to create an album that sounds like it should have been recorded back in 1993 and as such is refreshing in its ability to bring back the Aura that made the Norwegian scene world renowned.  Throughout the album I hear hints of early Immortal, Ulver, Carpathian Forest, and so on.  Funeral Moonlight exemplifies this adherence to tradition while maintaining a breadth of early styles like the incorporation of acoustic guitars a la Immortal's Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism album or the atmospheric breaks where everything stops except for the drifting icy guitar which calls to mind a Nordic freezing gale.  And I absolutely worship the calm break around the song's 8 minute mark that reminds me of Ulver's Kveldsvanger album with its simple yet beautiful acoustic passage.  As a matter of fact the closest musical reference I can place here is Immortal's debut as can be readily detected in a comparison songwriting style of Symbols of Winter and Immortal's A Perfect Vision of the Rising Northland.  Each song is brimming with frostbitten majesty and summons mental imagery of Darkened forests and snow covered tundra.  That's one thing that so many albums today miss, the atmosphere.  That one element made the early scene so special and and here Throne of Katarsis is imbued each track with that very same occult feeling.  An Eternal Dark Horizon consists of 5 lengthy tracks of TRUE NORWEGIAN BLACK METAL.  One thing that is a little disappointing is that two of the 5 tracks here are from their demo and if you already have their demo you already know 40 percent of the album though it is nice to hear these songs with proper production and after they have been tweaked a little to make them even better.  Grimnisse's vocals are excellent and at certain points remind me of Attila when he was singing with Mayhem bit most of the time they are the more traditional screeching black metal similar to Nattefrost's style.  The production is as is to be expected with the guitars being trebly and thin and every instrument seems covered in a layer of permafrost.  This is the best Norwegian black metal album in the traditional sense to come out of Norway in a very long time.  Frankly I am blown away and every time I hear An Eternal Dark Horizon it brings me back to an earlier and magical Monochrome age from my youth that has too rapidly disappeared.  I am certain this album will finish the year in my top releases.