Párodos – Catharsis

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Párodos is a band that doesn’t have a lot of history, Catharsis is the first album they released but they managed to hit the spot. After two years of rehearsal Párodos released a live session, then after opening for Fleshgod Apocalypse with their latest “King Tour” the band hit the studio.

The band’s name, “Párodos“, comes from classics, especially from greek tragedy where the term “parodo” stands for both a side-entrance, and the first song sung by the chorus after its entrance from the side wings (parodoi). The concept behind our music is to introduce the listener into a journey through human tragedy, where everyone is the actor yet also a spectator, and to guide him through a purification process that leads to Catharsis, which is the title of our album.

The album is dedicated to Luigi, a dear friend of the band who passed away. This had a big impact on their music and in my opinion formed the album.

Párodos consists of Marco Alfieri (vocals), Giovanni Costabile (Keyboards), Francesco Del Vecchio (guitar), Gianpiero Sica (bass) and Alessandro Martellone (drums) and was released by Inverse Records. They received some help from Marco Mastrobuono (Hour of Penance, Buffalo Grillz) who played the fretless bass in “Space Omega”, “Black Cross”, “Evocazione”; Massimiliano Pagliuso (Novembre) for the guitar solo in “Black Cross” and Francesco Ferrini (Fleshgod Apocalypse), who fully arranged and composed, “Stasima”.

The album starts off with prologue(intro), a gloomy part which starts the play, the song is ended by a vocal part that leads in the rest of the record. Space Omega is the second song of the album, a strong but melancholic song in which we first get to experience the strength of the band. The first thing that strikes is the vocal power of Marco, his clean vocals carry a lot of weight seemingly without him putting any effort to it. The song itself is composed in a way that it seems to tell the beginning and the background of a theater play. The whole band seems to play it without any trouble switching up fast and slow parts making this a very interesting song to listen to.

Next up is Catharsis, a song that continues the gloomy feeling of the record. In theater a catharsis is the purging of emotions usually nearing the end of the play. On the record it has the same purpose but here it seems to deepen the story for the rest of the album. Again the band drags the listener right into their music as if you are part of the story.

With Black Cross we near the end of the record and just like in a play this part carries more weight. The story has evolved but still carries you further. It is a more melodramatic song with a slower pace than the previous songs on the record.

The album ends with Exodus(Outro) a short song led by a piano to mark the ending of the story.

Release date: October 27th, 2017
Label: Inverse Records
Tracklist:
1. Prologue(Intro)
2. Space Omega
3. Catharsis
4. Heart of Darkness
5. Stasima
6. Black Cross
7. Evocazione
8. Metamorphosis
9. Exodus(Outro)

 

REVIEW SCORE

  • Music9/10
  • Lyrics/Vocals 9/10
  • Production/Mix8/10
  • Artwork/Packaging9/10
  • Originality9/10
8.8With Catharsis, Párodos follows the path of a Greek tragedy. It's an album filled with high's and low's supported by great lyrics and strong vocals. They manage to capture the feeling of a theater play in a record.