Katalepsy - Your Fear Is Our Inhabitancy (Soulflesh Collector Records; 2010)

Your Fear Is Our Inhabitancy, a two song promo by Moscow slammers Katalepsy, has left me a little stumped. It's not a bad pair of songs, but Katalepsy raised the bar so high with their previous releases, I can't help but feel let down. On their full length Musick Brings Injuries and their split Triumph of Evilution, Katalepsy were dynamic and effective. They were heavier, more varied, and more interesting than 90% of other brutal death bands. On this release I can't help but feel they've receded into the pack.

Here are my issues with Your Fear Is Our Inhabitancy. The vocals are very one-dimensional. This is not necessarily a horrible thing in this genre, and they definitely don't sound bad, but if you listen to the song "Number Of Death (13)" from Triumph of Evilution, you can easily tell that the newer vocals are a step down. The songwriting is also flawed. Katalepsy appear to have moved in a more atmospheric direction (I have no problem with this). However, instead of using that atmosphere to build up to some excellent slamming sections, they just sort of coast into some guitar chugs and run of the mill slams. I'd say the second song "Gore Conspiracy" works a little better than the first song "Unearthly Urge", but not to a great extent. My biggest problem here is that I know Katalepsy can write some of the best slams in the genre. They just didn't get it done here.

I know this sounds harsh, but fair or not I hold this band to a higher standard than your average slam band. They earned that respect with their previous material. Now I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt on this one for a couple reasons. One, this is just a promo, two, there appears to have been lineup changes, three, it's not bad in any way, it's just not amazing and four, I love Katalepsy and I want them to continue being awesome. From reading Katalepsy's shoutbox on last.fm, I can see others reacting in a similar way. Let's all hope Katalepsy can regain their exceptional form on the next full length.