Katafalk

History

Katafalk were a highly energetic death/black/thrash metal band hailing from Groningen City, The Netherlands. Their music contains brutal blastbeats, aggressive riffing, screaming vocals and killer leads. These components are brought together in very dynamic, well structured songs, which keep the listeners focused and incite a lot of energy. According to reviewers, elements of death, thrash, grind and black metal can be heard, so the band's style can easily be summarized as extreme metal. Katafalk was known for the explosive and intense live shows in which both the aggression of the music and the enthusiasm of the band members played important roles.

Katafalk was founded in 1995 by guitarist Christiaan "Chris" Salomon. After two demo's, 1997's 'Through the Storm' and 'Promo 2001', lots of gigs and line-up changes, the band managed to become pretty well-known in and outside The Netherlands. Having done a series of exclusive dates with God Dethroned, the band was offered a deal by Cold Blood Industries. Katafalk's debut album 'Storm of the Horde' came out early 2003 via CBI / Zomba / Suburban. The album is available worldwide and received overwhelming response by both fans and media. Some scores: Rock Hard 8/10, Legacy 13/15, Aardschok 85/100. Following the album, extensive gigging was done and many festivals were played.

Katafalk had an outstanding live reputation, having shared the stage with bands like Aborted, Altar, Ancient Rites, Behemoth, Callenish Circle, Centurian, Dark Funeral, Destruction, Dew-Scented, Desaster, Dimension Zero, Dismember, Entombed, God Dethroned, Grave, Hypnosia, Inhume, Kataklysm, Legion Of The Damned, Leng Tch'e, Lord Belial, Malevolent Creation, Marduk, Master, Misery Index, Mörk Gryning, Naglfar, Necrophagist, Origin, Primordial, Pro-Pain, Sinister, Thanatos, Vader and Vomitory. Festivals played include Noordschok, Stonehenge, Occultfest, Party.San Open Air and even a sold-out Wâldrock (14,000 visitors), among major acts like Anthrax, Annihilator, H.I.M., Lacuna Coil, Sepultura, Stratovarius, Type O Negative and Iron Maiden.

Katafalk also appeared in two TV commercials. The first, for internet-provider Chello, featured guitarist Chris smashing a guitar into a computer along the tones of Katafalk's song 'Cannonfodder' (broadcasted on MTV / TMF / Nickelodeon). A second commercial (this time for major online shop Bol.com, also broadcasted on Dutch national TV) saw both guitarists Chris and Niels van Wijk banging their heads in a record store.

As CBI became defunct, Katafalk recorded four new songs to show the new potential of the band. Recorded at Soundlodge studio's with knobmaster Jörg Uken (who later on also did God Dethroned and Dew-Scented) these sound even better than their full-length effort, showing a natural progression yet keeping intact all aspects of the Katafalk sound. After being shelved for some time, these songs became 'Death's Contradiction' mini album (released independently in June 2006).

(source: Katafalk, 2015)

(discography incomplete)