Review by Richard Henry for MPM
Well, the glorious sunshine has gone, it’s now raining and its bleak and miserable outside, so what better to do of a night like that, than dig into the new Katatonia album, this is the first album without Anders Nystrom who has been there for every album after the announcement earlier this year, so let’s get into this one and see where it takes us!
1. Thrice
Slammed into a heavy drum and guitar break before it cuts straight to the clean vocal and clean guitar, a bit abrupt, warm keys follow underneath the guitar part before the bass comes in with a percussion part, before the heavy guitars come in with a melody part, nice key change and then the tempo changes into a much heavier part, some nice odd time sections then come at you, and then it cuts back to the clean part of the verse again, then the mid-section brings back that slamming intro part, all muted chords and drum breaks, before an ascending middle section comes in with a real chuggy riff, very cool slow double bass part with the keys climbing against the riff, before we are back into the chorus part again, great opener!
2. The Liquid Eye
Brushes in with a tom groove and a delicate vocal over the clean pingy guitars, then it sort of builds, more on the drums than the other instrumentation, before a guitar melody comes in lightly then it really hits in with a sort of upbeat section coming in, again there is a lot of odd time sections in this, I love the way the melody guitar stays present in the background, almost grounding the whole piece, when the solo hits it absolutely soars, but the rhythm work underneath it is just as interesting, before that melody guitar comes in again just before we hit the upbeat section, the end of the song is quite strange where it doesn’t sound like it wants to finish and sort of leaves you in suspense!
3. Wind of no Change
Lovely drum and bass groove comes in with this, heavily distorted bass tone, and then the choir of vocals come in, almost like a Gregorian chant over this really chugging riff that follows some odd time patterns before it breaks down to a really melodic vocal where the keys have taken over the main backing and the guitars strip back to be more textural, there is a lovely break with the vocal and an electric piano sound before it builds back up with a really ominous tom groove with more walls of choir vocals, can you go wrong with lyrics that have “Hail Satan” in them, the way that solo comes in with little flourishes of tapping, it’s very atmospheric before we are back to the chants again, very ominous track!
4. Lilac
Kicking in with a 7/8 groove on this one, the odd time really flows with this quirky little guitar figure punctuating the start of this, almost like a glitchy electronic beat under the first section of the verse before the acoustic drums come in, before there is a break then the band hits with a really cool guitar solo, but again what the band is doing under the solo is equally as cool, really heavy guitar sound on this, the percussive chugging really driving this one along, I love that break into the middle section where it all comes down to a clean guitar part with the synth swirling around it, the song plays out on that part and it just gets more and more epic, I wish that part had just kept going, so majestic!
5. Temporal
Well, that’s a jarring eerie guitar part to kick this one off, before the main guitars slam in, great guitar sound, then a lovely melody comes in over that riff, again you think you know where you are and then it changes to a bass driven verse with another odd time drum part, it’s a really creepy sounding verse with the vocal, then when you hit the chorus it really opens up and a nice arrangement is that guitar melody coming in to back the second part of the vocal up on the chorus, nice break into a really soaring guitar solo, keeping it melodic but lots of feel and some nice chops on that pull off section, before it breaks again into a distorted bass and drum groove with a little guitar figure repeating before the vocals come back and into the chorus again, another epic track!
6. Departure Trails
Swirling electric piano and synth warms you at the start of this one and then a clean guitar melody comes in over that, it’s easy to say very Opeth, straight away when the drums come in and the wash of sound with the clean vocals, it’s the drums and odd time, just straight away make you think, this one just glides along on the key, even when it picks up slightly at the 2 min mark the guitars are very much in the background playing a melody, it’s all on the keys and synths, lovely bassline comes in after that last part and your back into the velvety verse part again, a very mournful guitar melody part comes in after 3 mins and sort of breaks the song up again before the keys take over again, breaks into the chorus and then plays its way out with a warm synth pad.
7. Warden
Clean arpeggiated guitars great you on this one, and then when the drums and bass come in, they start playing with the time around that guitar figure, it straightens out in tome when you get to what is the chorus part, then a nice break where a semi distorted guitar melody comes in, then it almost gets up-tempo for the next part which really lifts the song, again the whole production is crisp and you can hear all the synth parts supporting the guitars when they build into this part, now that middle section is lush, it almost feels like it opens for that guitar melody, then a staccato guitar part comes into the frame before the band crashes in again and back to the up-tempo section, absolutely loved this track!
8. The Light Which I Bleed
Clean guitar stabs start this one and then the drums lurch into the frame making it all seem slightly off kilter, then the delicate vocals come in over the top, then when it hits the next section it gets heavier but really the guitars haven’t slammed in, its more the atmosphere of the song gets really ominous and heavy, then when the heavy guitars come in it’s over a more upbeat part, again the rhythm section are constantly shifting time signatures underneath it all, second chorus they adda slow double bass underneath the same part to change it, then when the end comes in, it gets absolutely epic with the synths stepping right up to give it a real soundtrack vibe as it slowly fades out…
9. Efter Solen
Now I could be wrong about this, but the title is a collection of short stories by Danish author Jonas Elka (After the Sun) and as its not sung in English I cannot confirm, swirling electric piano dancing around the speakers with eerie vibrato effects playing about, the vocal is very bare and mournful, lots of atmosphere, nice use of a doubled vocal and then other vocals swirling around, it’s a very bare arrangement in some ways but the way they have orchestrated the whole piece, it really is a very beautiful piece of music, halfway through it gets almost new age electronic and again its really cool arrangement, absolutely loved this track!
10. In the Event of
First one where the heavy comes in right away and stays for a few bars, with a lovely drum groove and guitar melody hitting you right from the off, almost a Beatles counter point mellotron sort of pattern under that verse vocal line, then the driving bass line comes in after the first few bars, a break then the synths build, then a really electronic feeling synth part comes in before the band comes in again, an off kilter odd time section right there under the heavy guitars but at the forefront is the vocals and a guitar melody to drive the heavy section, a guitar solo comes in that is really interesting in feel, another chorus section and a break then the song sort of plays out with a slow double bass groove hammering the end of the track, then it stops and all you have left is the synth to play the track out!
10 out of 10
Well I mean they just do good work, I can’t fault this album, everything you would want is on here, from the mournful vocals to the soaring melody’s, the atmosphere, it’s all here, plus some really cleaver production parts and again the rhythm section are immense on here, if you love Katatonia you won’t be disappointed and if you don’t know them, seriously give this a listen, fantastic album!
KATATONIA are:
Jonas Renkse – Vocals
Niklas Sandin – Bass
Daniel Moilanen – Drums
Nico Elgstrand – Guitar
Sebastian Svalland – Guitar
KATATONIA online:
