THY CATAFALQUE released "Tömbök" today, the second single from XIII: Sárga erdő, out November 20 via Season of Mist. Tamás Kátai calls it both the darkest and the heaviest song on the record, and its video is a first for the project: the band is actually on screen, playing the song.
The title translates as "Masses," and the subject is unusually concrete for THY CATAFALQUE. Kátai explains that the lyrics follow waste incineration: how refuse is split into heat and slag, into "lifeless masses," and how matter changes shape under different chemical and physical conditions. He leaves the metaphor open. You can read it as a picture of how daily life grinds down the human mind, he says, "if you wish, though that's just an idea."
Gábor Veres sings on the track, and a flute cuts through the heaviness. "Tömbök" sits tenth on the twelve-song, 64-minute album, between the ten-minute title track and "Kút vizén nap forog."
When we covered the album announcement last month, the headline numbers were the cast: more than thirty collaborators, a twenty-voice choir and, for the first time in a project that dates back to 1998, a live drummer. Lead single "Búcsú a piros madártól" opened that campaign. Kátai describes Sárga erdő ("Yellow Forest") as a walk through an old, half-remembered time, with the folk and classical material that dominated 2024's XII: A gyönyörű álmok ezután jönnek handled more lightly this time.
XIII: Sárga erdő will be released on CD mediabook, digital and a long list of 2LP gatefold variants, including a leaves-filled clear edition.
Pre-order "XIII: Sárga erdő": orcd.co
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