Of all the bands out there that dare to be different, experimental, avant-garde, or whatever it is you want to call it, Thy Catafalque is one of the bands that absolutely have to be mentioned whenever talking about the names out of those outer reaches that don’t just talk a big game but can deliver the goods at damn near every turn. Thy Catafalque has long stood as a bastion of the metal underground’s ingenuity and defiance in the face of conforming to stylistic boundaries with its endless pursuit of otherworldly excellence the sort of phenomenon that the denizens of the underground have rightfully hailed as genius for several years now. For its eleventh full-length creation, Thy Catafalque looks back on its early but never once fails to keep marching forward into fresh and invigorating territory.

When we’re dealing with a band like this, truly anything is up for grabs. There is no way we could ever hope to truly gauge or estimate what is to come next from a name that’s as varied and accomplished as what we have here, and it’s only with the gift of time that Thy Catafalque manages to somehow get better despite the odds. For the nine tracks of “Alföld”, that proves to be no different. It would be crass for any of us to simply pin this creation as metal with the very soul of the album quickly showing itself off as something so much more be it from the legion of musicians demonstrating their talents throughout the performance, the mastery with which Thy Catafalque conducts itself for the whole of the creation, or the labyrinthine twists and turns that occur from one minute to the next in any given song. Nothing was off the table in the crafting of “Alföld” with Thy Catafalque not once afraid to take pages from its earlier albums while imbuing them with its modern mindset to not just amplify and hone what has been done before but breathe new life into them where many would think there is not much more to be had. This is simply an album that, much like a vast swathe of the very catalog of Thy Catafalque, demands to be heard multiple times in order to be properly understood with, even then, secrets to be discovered no matter how well you think you’ve explored this expansive and evocative creation that never once holds back in any given aspect.

It should be no surprise by now that we’re still getting glory from Thy Catafalque since time on seems to make the act all the more interesting despite the odds, and it is with this new creation that we are given a performance that truly feels as though it has learned from the years that have passed by to come forth in a single effort that is as dynamic as it is awe-inspiring. There’s too much going on in “Alföld” that’s done to a terrific degree for us to admit otherwise; Thy Catafalque has done it yet again.

LISTEN to “Alföld” on Bandcamp here.

LIKE Thy Catafalque on Facebook here.