THE GREAT KAT — Beethoven on Speed (review)

THE GREAT KAT — Beethoven on Speed album cover Album · 1990 · Speed Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
2/5 ·
UMUR
"Beethoven on Speed" is the 2nd full-length studio album by US, New York based speed/thrash metal artist The Great Kat. The album was released through Roadracer Records in September 1990. The Great Kat is an act formed by lead vocalist/guitarist Katherine Thomas in 1986. The Great Kat is basically Thomas solo project (and her stage name) with various sessions musicians playing drums and bass. Katherine Thomas is a classically trained violinist and handles both guitars, violin, and vocals on the album.

The Great Kat released her debut full-length studio album "Worship Me or Die!" in 1987, and the musical direction was clear from the start. Speed/thrash metal with raw snarling vocals and neo-classical oriented shredding guitars. Initially not the worst cocktail you could think of, but The Great Kat manages to fail on almost every parameter possible. Generic songwriting which seriously lacks hooks (despite the occasional recognisable classical melody being played with light-speed fast fretboard runs), an obnoxious raw snarling vocal delivery (Thomas can´t seem to decide if she wants to whisper, scream, moan, or snarl, and it all ends up sounding pretty unconvincing), ridiculously bad lyrics which very often revolves around how great Thomas is and how we should all worship her as a metal goddess (and I´m pretty sure they aren´t delivered with a gleam in the eye), and a completely soulless delivery of the music. Check, check, check, and...check.

...on the positive side of things, "Beethoven on Speed" is still a much better release than "Worship Me or Die! (1987)", which to my ears was more or less unlistenable. This time around the sound production is at least decent, there are a couple of riffs and rhythms which aren´t completely generic, and some of the neo-classical shred parts are alright too, but overall it´s still an inconsistent low quality release and a 2 star (40%) rating is me being nice.
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