It was the wolves that got me in the first time, I was boringly browsing the Metal shops here in Athens looking for something to break my boredom with, and the wolves eyes caught my attention (circa 1999) in the front cover of CATAMENIA's first album "Halls Of Frozen North". Since then I stayed close to the band looking out for their works.

CATAMENIA begun their life as a band in 1995 and apart from being singed to Massacre Records all these years, one could tell that they are also a very hard working band as "Cavalcade" is their tenth album in twelve years, and with numerous lineup changes in the band's history. I always liked the fact that CATAMENIA has a low profile and that the band can play good music and deliver powerful songs. In this album, though, the changes that begun in "The Time Unchained" are more evident. In the former album we heard the absence of the keyboards and the turn to a more mainstream sound "buffing" the gothic elements of CATAMENIA's sound, something that is more evident now in "Cavalcade". There are two vocal styles: a growling voice that takes us back to the Black Metal days but also a clean voice that combined makes the sound very similar to AMORPHIS, SENTENCED and POISONBLACK; no surprise that guest vocals in "Blood Trails" are sung by none other than Ville Laihiala.

I can't say I am really disappointed with the new album as it is much better than its former one, but "Cavalcade" is also a new path that the band chooses to walk on, a more "mainstream" path that was most likely chosen to help them come out of the semi-underground status the band had. Only the future can tell if such an attempt is positive. As I have written many times, the Gothic/Dark Metal scene is overflooded and of course there are the fans that liked CATAMENIA the way it was, before "The Time Unchained" album, yet honestly "Cavalcade" has a sound that is very good and easy to appeal to the ear and it has songs that you can remember easily, alas the AMORPHIS shadow in each song.

Production wise it's a complete and very well crafted album. Do not miss the power in the songs such as "The Path That Lies Behind", "Quantity Of Sadness" and "A Callous Mind". The three guitars give an extra edge to the sound and there is an overall feeling that the band is having fun in what they are doing. The guitars were always a strong part of CATAMENIA's sound and in this album they are far from being boring; I actually liked them very much.
I liked it and I think myself of a normal fan of CATAMENIA. Hardcores will probably not like it, but if you are close to the sound of AMORPHIS, SENTENCED and POISONBLACK you should think of giving it a try, you might not regret it.