The brainchild of Hungarian musician Tamás Kátai, Thy Catafalque combines extreme metal structure and traditional acoustic instrumentation and melody to create something altogether unique. For all the folk metal in the world today, Kátai’s work is among the most rewarding and least pandering, approaching the sound with remarkable grace. You can hear the ease with which he combines two disparate musical styles on “Alföldi Kozmosz”, a track from Thy Catafalque’s sixth album Sgùrr, which comes out in the fall.
“This is a quite spontaneous song, recorded in my childhood room with my old, 10-dollar classical guitar while visiting home in Hungary,” Kátai tells PopMatters. “Violin is similarly off-handed, played by my Greek friend, Dimitris Papageorgiou. There’s no vocals, only music depicting my love towards the Great Hungarian Plain where I was born and raised. Or home. Hence the title: Lowland Cosmos.
“The title of the album is from Scottish Gaelic meaning the top of a mountain but most of the songs are equally about water, mountains, their relationship and symbols attached to them, inspired by the Scottish Highlands and weirdly the Hungarian Lowlands. There’s not much vocals at all, and when there is, it’s not pleasant. The music is mostly unfriendly, bristly and cold compared to the previous albums. I guess it’s more metal this time.”
Sgùrr will be released 16 October on Season of Mist, and the beautifully designed album can be pre-ordered here.