Katharos XIII : “Chthonian Transmissions”

Jazz and black metal? Why not…
Jazz and soul music are among the finest genres, loved by many, so I’m not at all surprised by the recent trend to introduce such elements in black metal.
It is debatable how successfully such an intervention can carry the true spirit of the genre, but on the other hand it provokes no less sensations during listening and offers a different type of pleasure for the ear.

Katharos XIII is a Romanian black doom dark jazz metal band that definitely breaks their sound and boldly experiments in every aspect of their work.
They came across my emails quite by accident and I am very glad to find them, although a little late.
The interesting thing about the band is that they  actually started in 2009 with raw black metal, even a depressive black metal  sound, gradually  changing their genre characteristics.
I listened to the band’s discography and I think that everyone with an affinity for traditional black metal would like their early period, so if you don’t like the album presented in this review, take a look at their old works.
Katharos XIII have so far released four  full-length  albums, a demo and a split title, and only after their third long-playing, “Palindrome” (2019), the sound of the band acquires the nuances with which we can recognize them at the moment. I would like to know exactly what inspired such a change, but I think that’s a question for another time.

“Chthonian Transmissions” is the band’s fourth album, second with vocalist Manuela Marchis-Blînda, and can now be found on Loud Rage Music in various formats.

At the beginning of the title, the imagination is awakened by the use of jazz instruments such as tenor and alto saxophones and their incorporation into a whirlwind of atmospheric melodies, but also by different vocals – from female  jazz vocals, especially reminiscent of Beth Gibbons from my favorite Portishead,  to heavy nightmarish truncated vocals, in contrast to the radiant calm of Manuela Marchis-Blînda’s voice.

There are a number of psychedelic elements and noises, atmospheric guitars and imperceptibly, without thinking, you get caught up in a feeling of soaring in space, because you are no longer here and now, but in the dimension of “Chthonian Transmissions”.
The album lasts a little over an hour, and almost each of the songs  is more than 8 minutes  long – a time when the musicians manage to present different moods and invite us  into a special chaos, giving a unique touch to the music.

Emilian Matlak – vocalist, guitarist  and keyboardist in the band , shares:
“The new album encapsulate six different dreams delivered from the times when the itinerant cosmonauts had a telluric existence. We like the words of Kurt Vonnegut and the imagery of Andrei Tarkovski, so we tried to embed this in our aesthetics and in every word or expression to resonate with our own personal philosophy.”
Well, Andrei Tarkovsky is definitely a genius, I know very well the work and the atmosphere he creates, that’s why I can say that the band undoubtedly manages to embody part of its weightlessness and melancholy.
I also see clearly the influence of Kurt Vonnegut and his unclassified and free style of expression.

“Chthonian Transmissions” is not the traditional black metal album and is for people with a broader taste, with a more open mind. To me, the sound in it is much more jazz-oriented than black metal, but it still creates a very beautiful feeling of lightness, like a David Lynch movie.
The music here is beautiful, exquisitely presented, the flirtations with the instruments are amazing and if you listen to something new and interesting, with a taste of bands like White Ward, Five The Hierophant, The Lovecraft Sextet and other similar names, you will surely impress from the title at least a little.
Undoubtedly,  I wish there were more harsh  vocals, because for me their lack in this case is a waste of talent – Emilian Matlak’s vocals sound great in previous albums, while here they are barely hinted at, and I think they would sound perfect among  the  catchy saxophones.

The title has a dose of originality, brings specific emotions and is definitely worth hearing from fans of the  unusual music.
The magic of the sounds in “Chthonian Transmissions” captivates with the atmosphere of a smoky jazz club, at the same time imbued with deep emotional dives among chthonic lyrical segments and interesting ideas.

Hear the whole album here: