There comes a time for every band when a high has been reached, and the next album can only get worse. In Kataklysm`s case, the high was the combo Sorcery/Temple Of Knowledge followed by the low of Victims Of A Fallen World. Fair is fair, with all the line-up changes and personal problems of bandmembers, this can be reasonably explained, but the fact that Victims Of A Fallen World was not a good album cannot be denied. But then, Kataklysm showed the world that it hadn`t died out quite yet with the 2000 release The Prophecy, an album showing a band working hard to regain some of the glory it had in the earlier days. And for a big part, they succeeded. Even though this album was pretty _straightforward_ compared to their earlier work, it was devastating and well-written. But something was missing... Now, no more than a year after the Prophecy album, Kataklysm give us a final blow with their latest offering: Epic (The Poetry Of War) is without doubt an album that shows Kataklysm is back at the top where they belong.

Not since Sorcery has Kataklysm sounded so naturally, so violent, so heavy and yet groovy. Driving force behind the album is their patented Northern Hyperblast style, with atrocious drumming and an excellent guitar-bass combination. But the vocals have also regained their full power; the grunts are lower and the screams are more ferocious than ever. Add to that good songstructures, a very decent production, and killer artwork, and one cannot deny that Kataklysm is back at the deathmetal top. Forget about Morbid Angel and Cannibal Corpse for a while, Epic (The Poetry Of War) shows us that deathmetal can sound refreshing _and_ solid at the same time.