CoC : The Great Kat - Bloody Vivaldi : Review

The Great Kat - _Bloody Vivaldi_
(The Great Kat, 1998)
by: Brian Meloon (5 out of 10)

Once again, The Great Kat has released an EP, and this one is even shorter than her last effort [CoC #18]. It clocks in at less than seven and a half minutes. She says she releases short EPs because people can't handle any more of her music. I think she has a point. Anyway, starting off the EP is a relatively straightforward cover of Summer (Presto movement) from Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons", arranged for guitars, violins, bass, and drums. It's very impressive, with fast violin work and almost equally fast guitar work. Her violin work is clearly superior to her guitar work, as the guitars aren't quite able to keep up in some parts, and she takes some liberties with the violin sections transcribed to guitar. To her credit though, her version is noticeably faster than the orchestral version I have. This is clearly the best song here, as the frenetic pace of the song translates well to a metal format. If all of the songs were this good, it'd be great. Unfortunately, the next song is "Torture Chamber", which basically consists of a bunch of screaming (by Kat and some guy she's supposedly torturing) over sloppy, chaotic speed metal. Next is the half-minute long "Blood", which reminds me of Kat covering AC. It even has some growled vocals in the background, in addition to Kat's screaming in the foreground. Last up is Sarasate's "Carmen Fantasy", again arranged for guitar, bass, violin and drums. While this piece misses the all-out fury and dynamics that the Vivaldi had, it is still pretty good, and a huge improvement over the middle two songs. In general, the arrangements for the classical pieces are well done, keeping a good balance between violin parts and guitar parts. The drumming seems a little too straightforward to me, but I realize it's difficult to add a drum part to a classical piece. Overall, this release does nothing except cement the view that I had before I heard it: if The Great Kat would focus on arranging classical pieces in a metal format, lose the dominatrix schtick, and put out a full-length album, she'd be very good. As it is, there are a little over four minutes of good material here, and three minutes of utter crap.

(article published 16/1/1999)

ALBUMS
16/3/1997	B Meloon	6	The Great Kat - Guitar Goddess