Yesterday, Canuck hyper-blasters Kataklysm released their fifteenth full-length studio album, Goliath, and singer Maurizio Iacono - in an excerpt from our upcoming Streaming For Vengeance video chat - spoke about life post-pandemic and how things really are far from back to normal, especially for bands that are eager to hit the road to support new material.  

“It’s a disaster out there,” Iacono says bluntly. “I run a bunch of bands with my management company (Hard Impact) and it’s difficult because expectations are high. Bands think that because they have been off for three years, that they are owed something now. They are like ‘Three years with no money and dying. Now we’re here … give it to me now.’ And I’m like no, because everything is down. Everybody is out, so it creates an inflation in itself within the music industry. Because it’s not only about the money, now you have all these bands touring at the same time. So now you have no space. That means the promoters have to choose. So some people are getting crushed. It’s the middle class ones that are getting crumbled to pieces. You need a tour to survive and you need a certain amount of money when you go out there. You’re looking at a 40 to 60% increase on everything. Even crew. What did the crew do during the pandemic? They had to go and find another job. And the ones that remain are in so high demand that they are doubling the price. It’s a tough time and it hasn’t adjusted yet. On top of that, if you go to Europe, some promoters are charging you 20% to sell your merch and then a 20% VAT tax on top. Now you’re losing 40% of your income on merch. That is the biggest cash grab I’ve ever seen in my life. And the reason this is happening, is that the government is sending somebody that is going to collect that VAT tax. So they have to charge you 20% just to sell your merch. I wouldn’t be surprised to see bands selling their merch just outside of their tour bus. I see if it doesn’t change, there’s going to be a lot of problems. There’s gonna be a lot of bands that are going to fold.” 

Maurizio Iacono will guest on BraveWords' Streaming For Vengeance on Saturday, August 19th at 3:33 PM EST. You can watch/listen Streaming For Vengeance on the BraveWords Facebook page.

Goliath was recorded at JFD Studios in Dallas, TX and Studio City, CA as well as The Cabin in Orlando, FL by J-F Dagenais, who also produced and engineered the album. For the mixing and mastering, the band returned to Chris Clancy with assistance from Colin Richardson. The cover artwork required an image that captured the iconic battle of David versus Goliath theme that is echoed throughout the album while matching the power of the music. The band enlised renown Berlin metal illustrator Eliran Kantor (Testament, Fleshgod Apocalypse) to create the artwork which who took the Kataklysm look and gave it a macabre filter that compliments the brooding sense of uneasiness that was felt during the writing and recording of the album.

Goliath will be available digitally and in the following formats:

- CD Jewel
- Vinyl
 * Orange (Limited to 1000, NB US)
 * Orange w/ Black and White Splatter (Limited to 1000, NB EU)
 * Orange w/ Brown Swirl and Black Splatter (Limited to 300, Band Store)

Pre-order/pre-save Goliath here.

Goliath tracklisting:

"Dark Wings Of Deception"
"Goliath"
"Die As A King"
"Bringer Of Vengeance"
"Combustion"
"From The Land Of The Living To The Land Of The Dead"
"The Redeemer"
"Heroes To Villains"
"Gravestones & Coffins"
"The Sacrifice For Truth"

"Die As A King" video:

"Bringer Of Vengeance" video: