THY CATAFALQUE · XIII: Sárga Erdő | BLUE CLEAR BLACK SPLATTER 2LP

Winter lake (blue, crystal and black splatter) double vinyl in gatefold sleeve. Limited to 300 copies worldwide.

Background information about 'XIII: Sárga Erdő'

Thirteen albums in, and Thy Catafalque still refuse to stand still. Tamás Kátai's Hungarian avant-garde metal project has always been a shape-shifter, but "XIII: Sárga Erdő" pulls off its biggest structural turn yet: for the first time in the project's near three-decade run, a live drummer sits in the chair instead of programmed rhythm. That single change ripples through everything — the pulse breathes, the accents land crooked and human, and the whole record feels like it was cut in a room rather than assembled on a screen.

And yet the cast is staggering: thirty-four musicians plus a twenty-voice male choir, with piano, strings, brass, reed, sitar, kamancheh and zither all on call. The trick is discipline. Where earlier albums flooded every corner of a song with folk and classical colour, "XIII" holds back, bringing each texture in only when a track genuinely asks for it. The result sits closer to the bone — heavier in restraint than in volume. There's a fictitious folk song written for a vanished people on the Volga, an incineration metaphor that mutates into the album's most punishing cut, and an opener that reads like a farewell letter. Gábor Vári returns behind the desk for a second record running, keeping the production language steady even as the arrangements pull back. Twelve tracks, no single narrative thread — just a wander across old ground, touching loss, distance, memory and disappearance.

For fans of: Ihsahn, Dødheimsgard, Muzsikás

Track listing

LP 1:
A1. Búcsú a piros madártól
A2. Ég-anyám, föld-apám
A3. Dunnák alatt kék mező
B1. Szitakötő
B2. Suhamló éji fák
B3. Puszta
B4. Sirató
LP 2:
C1. Cseremisz
C2. Sárga erdő
D1. Tömbök
D2. Kút vizén nap forog
D3. 87 tavasz, 87 ősz

Manufacturer: Sasu Soundworks Sarl, 126 Boulevard Bara, Heliopolis 2, Lot B4, 13013 Marseille, France, Contact: www.season-of-mist.com