Review: Breathe Knives / Kataplexis split (2011)

Review published by Legion on 2011-11-23

Breath Knives / Kataplexis split When I started this review for the split album featuring two of Alberta’s metal bands, namely Kataplexis and Breath Knives, I had never heard of the latter, which is a kind of noise/grime metal band. Since I know pretty much nothing about these genres, my first thought was to just skip this part of the split and dive directly into the Kataplexis review, but after a few listens I felt like sharing some thoughts about Breathe Knives.

As I said earlier, I know pretty much nothing about the noise/grime genres but listening to the Breathe Knives’ songs, I thought that these guys were doing something right here and that noise/grime fans would probably appreciate this. There is no frill in their music; to me this feels like something angry stomping over the world delivering its message through distorted guitars and bass, shrieking vocals and drum machine. Vocal distortion and sampling add a little industrial feeling to the overall ensemble.

Breathe Knives offers you 4 songs on this split, 2 of which are covers from Cherubs and their split partners, Kataplexis. This is the only tracks where you’ll find blast beats as most of their songs, past and present, are usually mid paced. This is a bit far from what I’m used to listen to but I can appreciate what I heard from those four songs. I will definitely keep an eye on them.

Having very much liked Kataplexis’ debut album, Insurrection (see review here), I was looking forward to listening to those new songs. With this split album, I think that the guys from Kataplexis have moved deeper into grindcore territory. With Insurrection I described the music as death metal with a grind twist, but this time I would say things have been reversed to grindcore with a death metal twist packed with the brutality we’re accustomed to find in Kataplexis music.

Packed is the keyword here as we have 6 songs, which would be ok if it wasn’t for the total length of the 6 songs combined which gives only 10 minutes and a half of hearing pleasure. We can even talk about a 5 songs split since the track Fuck Guy is only 6 seconds long. Compared to their debut album, the songs are pretty short, except for the Breath Knives cover, which lasts for over 4 minutes, every song is under the 2 minutes mark, so pay attention to the songs because they come and go by pretty quickly!

That’s about the only complaint I have about these new Kataplexis’ tracks. As I mentioned above, this is still Kataplexis at their most brutal as we know them, I would even say that they have turned the aggressiveness up a notch on this split. The songs are short but they are packed with speed from start to finish. Blast beats and light speed guitar riffs will hit you right in the face. Even the vocals sound more aggressive than before, maybe not as deep but I would say raspier. The bass seems a bit lost among the other instruments though.

You won’t find mid paced sections to cool off as there was on Insurrection. Did I mention blast beats is another keyword here? The only time you’ll get some rest here is with their cover of the Breath Knives song, Rebreather. This song is pretty awesome; the Tibetan monks chanting in the background throughout the song help create an amazing atmosphere. It’s not much different from the original in term of speed and arrangements but it definitely is from what Kataplexis usually plays. Still, it has the Kataplexis signature all over it. It is so heavy!

In short, even though the running time is really short, Kataplexis delivers the goods on this split and I can only wait for their next album and hope that it will be in the same vein but please, with longer songs!

Favorite songs: Shitguy and Rebreather even if it’s a cover, it kicks ass

Breath Knives / Kataplexis split:

1- Wake Up Walt Disney 3:05
2- Steel Cheek vs. Ice Cream Teeth 2:36
3- Stag Party (Cherubs Cover) 2:58
4- False Flag (Kataplexis Cover) 2:53
5- Fuckin' Hostie 1:43
6- Rippin' Tacos 1:31
7- Shitguy 1:21
8- Cocksmoke 1:32
9- Fuckguy 0:06
10- Rebreather (Breathe Knives Cover) 4:19

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