Album Review: Catafalque – Dybbuk (Aural Music / Code666)

Catafalque deliver drone doom metal with strong influences of noise and industrial, resulting in an extreme, experimental and uncompromising sound. Their new album Dybbuk, inspired by a malicious spirit from ancient folklore, will be released on October 13th, 2023, via Aural Music / Code666.

Wow. Just, wow. Somehow Catafalque have managed to capture the feeling of dread and horror that anyone would feel should they experience the malevolent entity that is a Dybbuk. Across four tracks, they create an impossible amount of oppressive atmosphere and leave the listener feeling hollow inside. Your soul is up for grabs, and Catafalque have the soundtrack to its collection.

It really is as fascinating as it sounds, but this is undeniably an experimental album. One that sits in the drone and doom category, but is far from constrained by those genres. Catafalque stand in a group of one, and Dybbuk is their masterpiece.

So, how to describe an album that is all about how it makes you feel? An album that is all about discomfort and the terror of what lurks in the shadows? An album that has the capabilities to hypnotise?

Words can’t do this album justice. It is both spectacular and polarising. Three out of the four tracks pass the ten-minute mark, and the only one that doesn’t (Manifestation) is horror personified. With the other three, there is over thirty-five minutes of mind-numbing, soul-rendering, and body-shaking drone, doom, and noise, with layers of industrial delivery layered in too. The sound of the simple and the elaborate smashed together to create something wholly unique.

An album shouldn’t make you feel wicked, as though you’re listening in on something sane minds and sensible ears aren’t supposed to. Yet, that is what Catafalque deliver here.

Spectacular, provided you have the mental fortitude for it.

Catafalque – Dybbuk Track Listing:

1. Manifestation
2. Infestation
3. Oppression
4. Possession

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