Catamenia "Location: Cold" Album Review

Veteran melodic black metal band Catamenia returned to the studio after their very good 2005 album Winternight Tragedies to record another album. The result is their 7^th album called Location: COLD. The musical style for this album is pretty much similar to the previous one. Unlike the Norwegian atmospheric black metal band Arcturus, Catamenia rely less on keyboard orchestrated parts and they rely on heavy guitars, heavy, raspy vocals, and terrific guitar work that has a ton of melody. That’s what makes these guys so enjoyable to listen to. Finland is not as well known for black metal compared to Sweden and Norway but Catamenia are one of the elite bands in this genre for sure. Catamenia is also known for using wolves in their cover art. In comparison to bands such as Impaled Nazerene, Catamenia’s lyrics are not as dark and evil. But besides that I really think that in terms of Finnish black metal bands, Catamenia is better for sure.

The first song Tribe of Eternity contains some fast drumming called blast beats in musical terminology. The song Coldbound is one of the best songs in the album for its overall catchiness, clean vocals and the growling vocals by O.J. Mustonen. The middle part of the song has a catchy guitar section that is slower. The album also has the song called Tuhat Vuotta and it is sung entirely in Finnish. The band has had some lineup changes since its formation back in 1995. Riku Hopeakoski who plays guitars has been the only member to be in all of Catamenia’s releases. Timo Lehtinen who also played bass for melodic death metal band Kalmah played the bass guitar for Catamenia from 1996 through 2003.

In May 2008, vocalist O.J. Mustonen would leave the band for what were called undisclosed reasons. He actually had developed a throat problem and could not really sing to his full potential. According to the band, Mustonen missed the band’s Canadian tour and they felt that he was unreliable. Nonetheless, this album was a very good release even if it is not as good as Winternight Tragedies. Guitarist Ari Nissila would take over on vocals until his departure in 2010. If Winternight Tragedies was one of the best metal albums of 2005, then Location: COLD is one of the best albums of 2006.

Coldbound has a terrific riffing section in the middle of the song that is still memorable all these years later. Location: COLD is another awesome song with great clean vocals. The song begins with the sound of footsteps similar to the sound that someone’s shoes would make if they were walking through snow. Dark Tranquillity is another band that is able to mix the death metal vocals and incorporate clean vocals into their songs and make them fit. Although this album is another solid work, it cannot match the goodness and quality of songs such as Verikansa and My Blood Stained Path on the previous album. I would say that Verikansa is the catchiest song that I have heard from Catamenia up to this point and it would be tough for the band to match that song. The album has a cover song called I Wanna Be Somebody by W.A.S.P. Location COLD is a good album and just a notch down from Winternight Tragedies but for a black metal fan, this is a good CD to have. Is Location COLD one of the best albums of 2006? You could certainly make the case for that. For other 2006 metal albums that are great, make sure to check out the album Neighbourhell by Eldritch although that is a totally different style of music compared to this album.

Closed Gates of Hope has some good backing vocals as the song is about what happens when a person loses all hope and the past seems to haunt their life. Nonetheless, Location: COLD is definitely a solid release in the black metal genre.