For the uninitiated, The Great Kat is one of the most notorious
\nmusicians in the history of metal music. I honestly don’t think
\nI’ve ever heard anyone play the guitar as ridiculously fast as she
\ndoes. Yes, the shocking truth is that metal’s quickest shredder is
\na woman!! Even Yngwie Malmsteen sounds as slow as molasses next to
\nher!<\/p>\n
Seeing how she’s an honors graduate of the world famous Julliard
\nSchool Of Music in classical violin and has even played recitals at
\nCarnegie Hall (before she started her thrash metal career), it’s
\nquite clear that she’s a gifted virtuoso.<\/p>\n
Her own mission statement is this: to take the finest works of
\nthe masters of the classical music world and turn them into heavy
\nthrash songs played at blindingly fast speeds, creating a new genre
\nshe has affectionately dubbed “shred-classical.” And she pulls no
\npunches – every single note on
\nWagner’s War<\/i> (which was inspired by the 9\/11 attacks and in
\nwhich she sounds her battle cry to see all the terrorists of the
\nworld die vicious, brutal deaths) is delivered with all the
\nsubtlety of a detonating nuclear warhead.<\/p>\n
The Great Kat has been doing this since her first album came out In keeping with the short, yet insanely intense bursts of her The production sucks. Instead of being shocked and awed by her The comical highlight is the claim that there’s a whole symphony The only other highlights are a neck breaking cover of Lizst’s Vocals are quite scarce, since the entire emphasis is on her And that finally brings me to why I astonishingly find myself Well, I’m ready for the next eleven-minute blast, aren’t
\nin the late ’80s. You’d think someone so intense would mellow a bit
\nwith age, but in her case she’s only gotten more extreme.
\nEverything about her music is loud, in your face, and intense, at
\nall times. I honestly don’t think she’s physically capable of
\nplaying anything slower than at lightning speed. You’ll find that
\ntrue about her image as well. In all her interviews she answers
\nevery question with brief, shouted, one or two sentence statements
\nthat are exclusively in caps and always end with a dozen
\nexclamation marks. I haven’t decided yet whether she’s truly insane
\nor just never breaks character. Also, I have yet to see a picture
\nof her where she isn’t wearing an assortment of rather revealing
\nlingerie and bondage outfits, and snarling at the camera like a
\ndemon with an evil stare. And why in every single picture is her
\nmouth open wide enough to swallow a beach ball? Check
\nher Web site<\/a> for
\nthe evidence.<\/p>\n
\nmusic,
\nWagner’s War<\/i> ends almost as quickly as it begins – the seven
\nsongs run for only eleven minutes in total! See, The Great Kat is
\none smart, sexy lady – she knows that no normal mortal ear can
\nhandle her musical onslaught for more than a few minutes at a time,
\nand luckily that’s the only thing that makes her recordings
\nlistenable for the most part, because to be honest, this music is
\nshit. I mean, it’s almost unlistenable. And yet I like it
\nnevertheless, which I will explain eventually.<\/p>\n
\norgasmic leads and impeccable technique, I spend most of the time
\nstruggling to hear the guitar playing because it’s buried in a
\nmuddy midrange mix at the same level as everything else. This lack
\nof instrumental separation too often results in an indecipherable
\nblur of noise. The rhythm riffs don’t sound nearly as heavy or
\npowerful as they should, and the drumming sounds like someone
\nsmacking a cardboard box on a wood surface. In time, at least.<\/p>\n
\norchestra backing up The Great Kat on a few of these tracks. I
\nmean, even someone deaf would burst out laughing upon hearing the
\nobvious synthesized horns on the opening track, a horrendously
\nbutchered cover of Richard Wagner’s magnificent “The Ride Of The
\nValkyries.”<\/p>\n
\n“Hungarian Rhapsody #2” that has to be heard to be believed, and a
\ncover of Sarasate’s “Zapateado,” in which she whips out her violin
\nto demonstrate skills every bit as astounding as her guitar
\nplaying. Never mind the original material here, as it’s practically
\nworthless. None of her own songs have an ounce of the compositional
\nimagination of the covers, which really makes you wonder why she’d
\nallow them to be so obviously overshadowed.<\/p>\n
\ninstrumental skills, though occasionally she burps out a series of
\nunintelligible shrieks and growls which add to the already
\nEverest-high cheese factor. I should also quickly add that one
\nlistens to The Great Kat’s music for one reason, and one reason
\nonly: to be drowned by her technical ability. You don’t listen for
\nsongwriting, melodic development, and definitely not for lyrical
\ncontent, though the few lyrics are downright hilarious!<\/p>\n
\nliking the album. From front to back, beginning to end, and
\neverything in between, it’s so bad that it’s good. It is unabashed
\ncheese, and absolutely revels in that fact. As lousy as the
\nproduction and as shallow as the songwriting are, the entire
\nextreme and uncompromising presentation make it a deceptively
\nentertaining listening experience. As something that The Great Kat
\nprobably shat out in all of five minutes,
\nWagner’s War<\/i> has the same sort of low-budget charm and
\nno-frills appeal of an Ed Wood movie. My friend and I were howling
\nin our seats while listening to this, which automatically makes it
\nfar better than a lot of music out there. She’s a cartoon
\ncharacter, and I hope she never changes. I sure hope she at least
\ngets a proper producer who actually knows what they’re doing next
\ntime though, because I really would like to be able to properly
\nhear her dazzling talents. I’m sure her live shows are
\nspectacular.<\/p>\n
\nyou?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":26661,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6476],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-37913","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-great-kat","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37913\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37913"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}