Catamenia – The Rewritten Chapters (2012)

In the current age of remakes and rehashes of anything from TV shows, Movies, and comics, it was about time to have a re-recording of some sort. Catamenia delivers 15 re-recordings of many of their hits, and having nine full-length releases under their belt makes it a daunting task to pick the songs that are worthy of the band’s newer Blackened Heavy/Melodic Metal sound.

With a few new band members as well, the band rips open this release with the powerful “Hollow Out – ChaosBorn” from their 2003 “Chaos Born” album. Immediately showing their strength, this song is very riff intensive and with a brutal combination of growls and shrieks, it just sounds amazing. The signature Catamenia sound is ever present, but the more clean and modern edge to their recent releases also seeps into the older songs in a very effective way. “Blackmension” from “Eternal Winter's Prophecy” follows and keeps the intensity of this release very high, the keyboards particularly shine in this great song.

The band does a great job covering their old catalogue and many of our personal favorite tracks have made the cut for this release such as: “Calvacade”, “The Day When the Sun Faded Away”, “Morning Crimson” and “Lost in Bitterness”. We can go on and on about how each song is different from their original versions, but we think that this release requires the listeners (and fans) exploration to determine if you like how the band sounds now with a refreshed take on their music (mainly the guitar work).

As a band, Catamenia has covered many different styles over the years and this is nicely evident in the tracks presented in this release. It is a bit weird to have them not in chronological order, but once you recognize the song structure you immediately know from which album they come from. If you are a fan of the band, this is a must have release that will nicely round up your collection. The band does feature a wolf and the traditional ‘interesting’ sounding cover, this time Bon Jovi’s “Born to be my Baby”.

Release: April 27th, 2012

Country: Finland