Katatonia
The Great Cold Distance

    The arrival of a new Katatonia album is a big event for mopey metallers everywhere. Since their transformation in ‘97 from doomy death metal to, er... the doomy shoegazer metal of ‘Discouraged Ones’, Katatonia has garnered a loyal cult fan base, mostly in Europe, but also steadily growing on other continents. This is a band that by all rights should be huge. I mean, it’s no small feat making songs this accessible and - dare I say - catchy, out of subject matter that invariably revolves around despair, loss, social insecurity and death. It’s definitely not ‘love metal’. But for coming from such a bleak place, Katatonia’s music is oddly uplifting, and has a lot of variation. There are very few bands I have been able to listen to so consistently over the years without growing weary of, and who continue to evolve with each release while still retaining a distinct sound and song writing style, executed with uncompromising integrity.

     The album opens with ‘Leaders’, which quickly dispels any notion that Katatonia has gone soft since their previous (and heaviest) outing, ‘Viva Emptiness’. It has the familiar dark, gritty swirls of disciplined riffs interlocked with deep basslines, and glassy leads surfacing like shards of light in a dusty room. The drumming is simple and powerful, anchoring the song with a solid mid-tempo pounding, broken at intervals by short, tumbling fills. Jonas Renkse’s vocals have that gorgeously airy, fragile tone that goes straight to the heart, while still retaining a cold, steely-eyed distance that steers well clear of over-emoting. The album title makes instant sense, and fits perfectly into the theme of reaching from a place of isolation towards something brighter that unites all Katatonia albums, at least in my mind.  

     By the third track, ‘Soil’s Song’, the guys have moved through all the elements one comes to love about this band. The verses on this song, although less upbeat than the previous one, are achingly pretty; pristine chords riding a restrained, syncopated beat that gains weight with a sludgy riff joining the procession as the chorus hits. The dynamics of Katatonia’s sound is as light/dark as the lyrical images, and clearly demonstrates the musical chops of these guys. Always at the service of the song itself, and never geared towards flashy individual displays of musicianship, they keep their talents on a tight leash, never losing focus. The guitars have an excellent sense of timing, going from muted, watery atmospherics to distortion-saturated walls of noise at the drop of a hat.  Sometimes they will drop out completely in the middle of a song, leaving only faint echoes shrouding subtle electronic beats, before converging in sheets of layered minor key chords.

     As most of their albums, the middle part contains the hardest rocking and most complex songs, while towards the end of its runtime the atmosphere grows progressively bleaker as the tempo slows down. The initial run of tracks leading up to first single, ‘My Twin’, is so strong that the rest of the album inevitably seems oblique in comparison, but from experience I know that given time and repeated listening, those songs will grow on me as well. Particularly ‘July’ has a chord sequence to die for, and a chorus that will give you chills just by thinking about it. One of the great things about this band is that, while they definitely have a predilection for writing irresistible gloom-pop gems, they don’t shy away from grim discordance either. It’s this blend of darkness and light that keep you coming back and finding new things to keep you interested in their music.

     The only slightly disappointing element I can put my finger on with a few tracks on the album (‘Leaders’, especially), is a pretty blatant Tool influence that shines through occasionally. Though it offers a rare instance of hearing Jonas using his pipes to let off a cathartic scream, and does nothing to detract from the quality of the music, it ultimately shows that Katatonia is at their best when doing their own thing. This album might also be their most cleanly produced yet (listen to how abruptly the guitar cuts in and out at times, a sure sign of careful ProTools engineering), but then again Katatonia have never been about making your ears bleed at every available opportunity. The production is handled by the band themselves, as always, so you can be sure it’s not a label decision that it sounds so structured. That’s just the way Katatonia works – No half-assed contributions. Every member of this band pulls their own weight and is integral to forging their unique sound.

    As this album comes after three incredibly solid releases in the past seven years, ‘The Great Cold Distance’ would have to be damn near perfect to deserve to be called their best album yet, but if you like what they’ve done in the past, you’ll love this as well. And if this is your first acquaintance with this amazing band, do yourself a favour and start working your way back through their previous albums. It might not cheer you up, but these chaps make depression sound pretty darn good.

~FG

Label:  Peaceville 
Year:  2006
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