The music on the album is heavy/speed/thrash metal delivered with fast-paced shredding solos and "I" form lyrics. For the recording of this album she brought in Tom von Doom on bass and Adam Killa on drums. The Great Kat is the brainchild of classically trained violinist Kat (Katherine Thomas) (guitars, vocals, violin). The album was released through Roadracer Records in 1987. "Worship Me or Die" is the debut full-length studio album by US heavy/thrash metal act The Great Kat. The rest of the album makes an evening listening to Kenny G sound inviting. If this STILL sounds appealing to you, do yourself a favour and seek help.
#KILLA C DISCOGRAPHY KAT FULL#
The liner notes are full of great screeds of stupidity, including a Great Kat I.Q. There are about two and a half good riffs outside the classical remakes, and the songwriting and vocals are so bad they should never have been recorded. Manowar's "Sting Of The Bumblebee" is far superior.Įlsewhere, Kat actually pulls out the violins, both acoustic and electric, attempts to write a guitar concerto, and generally messes about trying to be offensive. It sounds like it has been sped in the studio. Kat also has a go at Rimsky-Korsakoff's "Flight Of The Bumblebee". Paganini's "24th Caprice" is also given fairly respectful treatment. The main theme of the song is retained quite faithfully, augmented by a pipe organ and multi tracked solos. Chopin's "Funeral March (Piano Sonata in Bb Minor)" is probably the best of the lot. However, Kat did manage to pick a few winners here. It is not a song that lends itself to the electric guitar. It is probably note-perfect, but sounds wrong. The first is fast, which is why it is called "Beethoven On Speed", the second is slower with a bit more crunch, hence the title "Beethoven Mosh". There are two versions of Beethoven's fifth symphony, perhaps the most famous few notes in all of classical music. What you get are high speed thrash (or "hyperspeed", as Kat would like to call it) versions of a number of well known classical pieces, interspersed with some random guitar noises and pointless shouting which pass for original songs. Who knows how she got there if her violin playing is anywhere near as awful as her songwriting. The Great Kat was trained at the famed Julliard music school in New York, as a violinist. Put simply, The Great Kat can play fast, but that is basically her only saving grace. Rather than partaking in methamphetamine, poor old Ludwig Van would be sticking pencils in his ears to ensure he remained deaf if he'd ever heard this. The above quotes are taken from the liner notes of 'Beethoven On Speed'. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the delusional world of The Great Kat. "I'm only about 200 years ahead of my time! Let's see how fast you can catch up, moron! Wake Up! The Great Kat is the Beethoven of the 21st century!!!" 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. 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. 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. Initially not the worst cocktail you could think of, but The Great Kat manages to fail on almost every parameter possible. Speed/thrash metal with raw snarling vocals and neo-classical oriented shredding guitars. 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. Katherine Thomas is a classically trained violinist and handles both guitars, violin, and vocals on the album. The Great Kat is basically Thomas solo project (and her stage name) with various sessions musicians playing drums and bass. The Great Kat is an act formed by lead vocalist/guitarist Katherine Thomas in 1986. The album was released through Roadracer Records in September 1990. "Beethoven on Speed" is the 2nd full-length studio album by US, New York based speed/thrash metal artist The Great Kat.