No, not the classically-trained female guitar virtuoso The Great Kat. The Polish black/speed metal band KAT. The word 'kat' apparently means 'executioner' in Polish. The band itself actually formed in the late seventies, but didn't really start releasing demos and albums til the middle 1980s (although they did make compilation appearances before that). They put out a single ("Noce Szatana/Ostatni Tabor") in 1984, but it was their 1986 album, Metal and Hell, which was more blackened sounding than the single and cemented their place among the extreme metal underground.
The title track from 1985's Metal and Hell
It was really with the early material that Kat played a heavily Venom-influenced black/speed metal style. After Metal and Hell and some singles, they released an all-Polish language version of Metal and Hell entitled 666. This era of Kat's existence more or less ends with their 1987 live album 38 Minutes to Live. In 1988, they released an album that was moving away from their Venom-esque black metal roots and toward a slightly more mainstream speed/thrash sound with 1988's Oddech Wymarlych Swiatow.
From their live album, this is "Czarne zastępy"
They shifted gears again in 1991 with Bastard. This album is much more mainstream thrash, but very technically accomplished with an almost NY thrash (Anthrax, Overkill, etc.) feel to it. For the purposes of this black metal retrospective of mine, Kat's relevance to old-school black metal really ends with their live album. But it is important to note how influential they have been in the Polish metal scene. Several modern Polish black metal bands have cited their influence and even covered them (Behemoth, North, Grom, and Mastiphal, to name a few).
Select Discography:
"Noce Szatana/Ostatni Tabor" (single) (1984)
Metal and Hell (full-length) (1986)
666 (full-length) (1987) 38 Minutes to Live (live album) (1987)
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