Patristic – Catechesis review – Metal Storm

01. A Vinculis Soluta I
02. A Vinculis Soluta II
03. Catechesis I
04. Catechesis II
05. Catechesis III
06. Catechesis IV

With a band name derived from the writings of the early Church fathers and subsequent establishment of the Christian canon, as well as an album name that refers to Christian religious education, one might anticipate the music of Patristic to seek the divine; however, if anything, the contents of Catechesis are positively infernal.

The Italian band began as a side project of Hideous Divinity’s Enrico Schettino, before being fleshed out by Sathrath (Mass Carnage) on drums and vocalist Lorenzo Sassi (Frostmoon Eclipse). The individuals behind Catechesis have backgrounds in black and death metal, and the record itself lurks somewhere between the two styles, rendered with plenty of dissonance and a thick atmosphere. For a debut album, this is a monstruous endeavour crafted with considerable style.

Airy clean guitar and synths in the opening seconds offer misdirection, as soon those guitar tones are rendered instead with distortion, crafting sinister textures within an onslaught of extreme metal riffing. Death metal buzzing and black metal tremolos overlap and coalesce in a surge of fury, powered onwards by ballistic blasts, rampant double bass drum rolls and hoarse growls. “A Vinculis Soluta I” is a fierce, vicious track, but it does find space for riff hooks, as well as subtle hints of melody and atmosphere, even as it storms forth with little respite. They do briefly lift the foot off the pedal a tad near the song’s end for a more expansive and important climactic moment of glowing levity, before a final rifftastic surge to its conclusion.

There’s 6 tracks on the album, although as indicated by the track titles it’s effectively two multi-part songs; while it’s by no means a ‘one-song album’, Catechesis does feel intended to be listened to as a single complete entity, particularly due with the seamless transitions between tracks. Of the two overarching segments of the album, “A Vinculis Soluta” is the more consistently intense, with “A Vinculis Soluta II” unleashing barrages of blackened death metal that would make early 00s Behemoth wince; that said, amidst the dissonance, percussive abrasion and tantric vocals (both roared and spoken), there are glimpses of the lighter touches that grow as the album approaches its latter stages.

The transition between “A Vinculis Soluta” and “Catechesis” is marked by insidious, shuddering chamber strings, adding a dark beauty to the doomy early minutes of “Catechesis I”, which seem reluctant to fully let go for several minutes, stopping and starting repeatedly before finally unleashing the band’s full fury. Sathrath’s incredible versatility behind the drumkit does a lot to make this rhythmic uncertainty compelling; as much as the speed and power of his extreme metal drumming is captivating, the range of other rhythms he throws into the music is a key factor in making the album’s contents so gripping. Schettino has also brought some of his best work to the album; while I was fond of last year’s Hideous Divinity album Unextinct, he has brought the best of himself to this album, doing such a great job of balancing dissonant atmosphere and technical virtuosity with pure riff satisfaction across the album.

As mentioned earlier, the album does begin to tone down the suffocating heaviness the further it goes on; “Catechesis II” already stands out from what comes before with its generally slower pace and Ulcerate-style atmospheric passages, but “Catechesis III” is almost tranquil during its reverbing clean guitar opening, while “Catechesis IV” revels in brooding mid-tempo riffery. After the full-on nature of the album’s opening stages, this increased range really helps it to escalate to another level, balancing that suffocating aggression with mournful gravitas, as if marking the ‘victory’ of Christianity in becoming a dominant societal institution.

Catechesis comes courtesy of Willowtip Records; Hideous Divinity’s existing reputation may have helped to some degree to bring attention to the band, but listening to the album makes it very clear that talent alone earned them a place on such a great label, as Patristic have come out all guns blazing on this first album, one that will surely rank among the great debut metal releases of 2025.

Written on 26.06.2025 by Hey chief let’s talk why not