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| KATAGORY V - Awaken a New Age of Chaos LP | |
HRR 1008LP, ltd 500, 200 x black + 300 x transparent ultra clear vinyl, 425gsm heavy cardboard cover, insert | |
| Albert Rybka - vocals Curtis Morell - guitar Dan Coxey - guitar Dustin Mitchell - bass Matt Suiter - drums | |
| 01 Empire Of Ignorance 02 Absolution Divide 03 Legacy In Blood 04 Night Wing 05 Escape To Beyond 06 Blood Siphon 07 Through Fate's Eyes 08 Prophet Of Sorrow 09 Spirit Of Vengeance 10 I Miss You | |
AVAILABLE | |
Mastered for vinyl by Patrick W. Engel at TEMPLE OF DISHARMONY in January 2025.
Katagory V are a progressive power metal band formed in Salt Lake City, Utah, in early 1999. Their full-length debut »Present Day« was released in 2001, followed by four more albums: »A New Breed Of Rebellion« (2004), »The Rising Anger« (2006), »Hymns Of Dissension« (2007) and finally »Resurrect The Insurgence« (2015).
The band has now signed a deal with High Roller Records, the first result being their brand new effort »Awaken A New Age Of Chaos«. The album was recorded by Dustin Mitchell (bass), Curtis Morrell (guitar) and Matt Suiter (drums), all from the original line-up, plus singer Albert Rybka and their newest addition, Dan Coxey on second guitar.
“The album was recorded and mixed over a four-year time span at Streamline Sound here in our hometown of Salt Lake City, Utah,” explains founding member and bassist Dustin Mitchell. “The studio is owned by one of our songwriters and guitarist, Curtis Morrell, and we produced it ourselves, with Alan Douches (Fates Warning, Cannibal Corpse) mastering it. It was a long process because we were not really sure how seriously to take it. We were just doing it to have fun when we first got together, but the more songs we wrote, the more we felt that we should take it more seriously. We honestly did not know if we wanted to call it Katagory V, even though three out of the five original members were in it. We didn’t think anyone cared about Katagory V anymore. But, after having our first album re-released on vinyl in Europe, and our fifth album released on CD in the States as well, where it was only available in digital format since 2015, and … after listening to the new songs we had written, we agreed that we should reform under the Katagory V banner.”
A wise decision as »Awaken A New Age Of Chaos« turns out to be a masterpiece of contemporary progressive power metal. But let’s go back to its predecessor »Resurrect The Insurgence« for a moment: “The album is probably our most melodic one compared to the earlier albums,” reflects Mitchell. “On »Resurrect The Insurgence« we were trying to combine thrash, prog and melodic rock, essentially wearing ALL of our influences on our sleeve. Our earlier albums are much more rooted in the 80s traditional/power/progressive metal sound, where »Resurrect The Insurgence« incorporated more melodic metal/rock than our previous albums.”
In the past, people have compared Katagory V to Fates Warning, early Queensryche, Hades, Sanctuary and Lethal, which doesn’t seem to be too far off the mark: “Yes, those are bands we are certainly influenced by for sure, but we also are influenced by a lot of the speed/thrash/doom bands of the late 80s and early 90s as well old school thrash bands, such as Realm, Death Angel, Helstar, Flotsam & Jetsam, Atrophy, and we also are influenced by a lot of the heavier melodic hard rock bands, especially ones from Germany, like Bonfire or Jaded Heart.” This should give you a pretty good idea what to expect from Katagory V if you haven’t heard of them before.
According to Dustin Mitchell, the band’s 2015 album »Resurrect The Insurgence« was received very well: “There were really good responses for the most part, many fans felt it was our best album at that time with strong hard-hitting songs, but there was not a lot of feedback from the media since it was only released digitally and there was no publicity behind it except for those that bought it from us directly. Only a small few journalists reached out to me for a digital press kit, which there were very few of those at that time so there was not a lot of media feedback for that album.”
Since »Resurrect The Insurgence« it’s been ten years. Why has it taken so long? “The short answer is we were burned out,” confesses Dustin Mitchell. “After ten or so years of busting our asses, and not really seeing any more good opportunities being presented to get our music out there, things fell apart and we all took a break at some point. Eventually we started feeling that itch again in 2019 – especially after there was interest in re-releasing our first album on vinyl a few years ago – we felt maybe it was time to return and try again.”
This also explains the album title, »Awaken A New Age Of Chaos«: “More or less, it’s a tongue in cheek notion that our band is the ‘chaos’ and we have been ‘awakened’ from a long, long slumber. With this new album, we want to throw down the warhammer and lay claim to putting out quality 80s-inspired true American metal. Prog, thrash, power, speed … all of it.”
Overall, the album has a pretty dark mood, which is pretty unusual for the band. “Oh yes, very much so,” confirms the bassist. “This is a much darker, angrier album, darker than anything we’ve done in the past, maybe with a slight exception to our second album, which is also a bit darker and thrashier. Over the course of our career as a band, we have taken several solid punches to the gut, which is why we retired a decade ago, so it’s only natural that those feeling are going to come out in our music. I can’t speak for the entire band, but I know for myself, I want to see a redemption arc for Katagory V, and I feel this album could make that happen, or at we least hope so.”
Indeed the guitar sound of songs like “Empire Of Ignorance” or “Blood Siphon” is extraordinary heavy. So would it be true to say that all in all »Awaken A New Age Of Chaos« has more (power) metal than prog in it in compared to the band’s earlier records? “I think so, yes,” agrees Dustin Mitchell. “This is due in part to bringing in Dan on second guitar, who was also instrumental in the songwriting for this album. We’ve always had a tendency to lean into the harder thrash and speed metal, and with Dan’s background coming from a groove/thrash/death metal background, those attributes are certainly going to be added into the band.”
Which might also explain the fact that the riffing in “Legacy In Blood” or “Prophet Of Sorrow” for example is hinting at »South Of Heaven«-era Slayer or mid-period Exodus for that matter. Heavy stuff. “Thank you for noticing!,” laughs the bass player. “Yes, those songs are very much structured around that particular style of thrash – that L.A./Bay Area style and sound. We are HUGE fans of that style, as we grew up on that stuff, so we thought it would be fun to lean into that style a bit more on this album.”
On the other hand, there are more melodic tunes like “Absolute Divide” or “Through Fate’s Eyes”, which show traces of Fates Warning and Dream Theater. “Again, thank you for noticing!,” is Dustin’s reply. “As you can tell, we are massively influenced by that genre as well – Lethal, Watchtower, Crimson Glory, Fates Warning of course… many, many others. So, it’s no surprise that a few songs in that style would make their way onto this album.”
So after all, is progressive power metal still a fitting term to describe the music of Kataory V? “Yes, I think so,” says the bassist. “We do tend to lean into other metal genres from the 80s depending on the song, but at our core, progressive power metal would be a fitting description since that is primarily the style we have played for 25 years. The whole goal of this band was to try to incorporate all the styles of metal we loved when we were younger, and try to make it work on an album. We’ve always enjoyed having variety with peaks and valleys in our music. In fact, every album we have released is generally like that. We get bored playing the same thing all the time, so we like to change it up on occasion, and that leads to us writing songs that vary in style. Katagory V is a band for fans of all types of true metal, primarily progressive power metal, but none the less, NWOTHM, thrash and speed metal fans will also find things to like on this album. In short – if you enjoy a variety of metal styles rooted in the 80s, you will dig our new album.”
Which is a good start, isn’t it? With High Roller Records backing the band, new opportunities might wait for Katagory V: “A majority of our fans are in Europe, and for most of our career, our albums have been an import for them, so it actually amazes us that we have fans over in Europe that pay a lot of money to buy our albums for all these years. So, there is obviously a market for us there. Partnering with High Roller – which I buy many of their artists albums myself – is a very good thing, being that we will finally have an album that will be considered domestically available in Europe now. High Roller puts out fantastic product by amazing bands, and from my perspective, High Roller are metal fans themselves and know what other metal fans want. This is exactly what we like and are excited to be working with them on this album.”
Long may this continue. And who knows, maybe Europe is beckoning for Katagory V: “Surprisingly, we have never played over in Europe! It’s actually crazy, because again, that is where our fan base is, but we only ever got one offer to play in Europe a long time ago. I think it was Germany, but at that time we had just broken up, so it obviously didn’t happen. Hopefully with this new album, some of those opportunities will present themselves again, and we can finally get over the pond to play live for our fans there.”
MATTHIAS MADER