Review: Patristic – Catechesis
“Catechesis”, the debut album of Patristic, features a a concept steeped in early Christian theology, decay of empire, and the clash between pagan philosophy and ascendant dogma. The album set the stage with towering themes, dramatic shifts, and blackened-death metal textures, even though that grandeur only sometimes pays off. For every moment of power, there’s a passage that feels like weight without purpose.
Musically, “Catechesis” is dense. Guitars rage with dissonance, drums pummel and drive, vocals are harsh and uncompromising. The production is polished, mixing heavy distortion with ambient interludes, strings and synths that flicker at the edges. I”A Vinculis Soluta” I and II, burst of fire, momentum, almost brutality tempering artistry. But often those incendiary moments give way to repetition. Riffs circle familiar cadences, blast beats return without new context, and the balance between aggression and atmosphere slips into predictability.
One strength is the sense of flow. The album’s divisions into movements (“A Vinculis Soluta” parts, “Catechesis” parts( work to frame the music as one sweeping whole rather than discrete singles. Transitions between heavy burst and ambient calm show composer work and intention. The drummer stands out, pulling through changes of pace with precision. These moments elevate the album above mere brutality.
Yet the high ambitions become a double-edged sword. The conceptual weight sometimes overwhelms the emotional connection. With complex, dissonant guitar work and harsh vocals, there’s less room for hooks or memorable melody. Long passages stretch without sufficient variation, making parts of the album feel like endurance trials rather than immersive journeys. The thematic concept is interesting but seldom revealed clearly enough—listeners who don’t dig into liner notes may miss much of what “Catechesis” tries to say.
At its best, the album evokes atmosphere: a crumbling empire, devotion turned ritual, shadows of belief and disbelief. Ambient moments offer respite and texture. But these are sparse, and when they appear, they sometimes feel tacked on rather than organically woven in. The moments of calm are too often prelude to return to the same structures rather than stepping stones to something new.
The vocals are harsh and fitting, but there are times when layering or mixing leaves them distant. The heaviness is there, but sometimes unbalanced. The ambient edges and polish distance rather than draw in, at least for parts of the album.
Overall, “Catechesis” is a record of promise and pressure. It wants to be grand, esoteric, weighty, and sometimes it achieves that. Other times it retreats into intensity without direction. With more dynamic variation, sharper hooks, clearer articulation of concept, it could have been something more than a notable debut. And the vinyl variants are sharp as fuck.
