i have been not very enthusiastic about the release of the new kataklysm record in the first place. the predcessor "of ghosts and gods" was a very good record but somehow it didn't get much play time on my turntable. on every, admittedly rarer, occasion i dropped the needle on that one, i wondered as to why there is such a discrepancy between quality and play time. i feel it is because of this contradiction i was not in gleeful anticipation of "meditations". that changed when i saw the album on tape for pre-order at nuclear blast.
i found cassette tapes to be a fantastic way of still getting music on a physical format for which i don't want to pay the extra cash of the vinyl editions. the excitement for the actual look of the tape and its transfer of artwork to the cassette format, changed my initial attitude towards "meditations". now i was eager to listen to it. after a few run-throughs i am sure that this album will face more play time in the future. a great record. not all songs are pure gold but pieces like "outsider" or "narcissist" carry the whole to higher spheres. lovely! 200 copies made. nuclear blast. 2018.