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The passing of time brings longer shadows and darker thoughts to the human mind. Melancholy\u2019s cry is never far from our ears, even in the happiest of times. But while there is no true answer to the meaning of our brief lives, music will always be a reliable and trustworthy companion through fear and uncertainty.<\/p>\n
Perhaps more than any other contemporary band, Katatonia have long displayed a masterful propensity for expressing the tears and torments of mortality, offering sumptuous glimmers of sonic hope to soothe our troubled souls. In 2016, Stockholm\u2019s widely celebrated soldiers of sorrow will once again stir the blood and embolden our hearts with a brand new album that promises to further cement their already unassailable reputation.<\/p>\n
The band\u2019s story began in earnest 25 years ago when Jonas Renkse and Anders Nystr\u00f6m first joined forces to explore the limitless possibilities of the then burgeoning doom and death metal scenes. Bands like Paradise Lost and My Dying Bride were standard bearers for British melancholy, but Peaceville label mates Katatonia swiftly established themselves as Sweden\u2019s idiosyncratic equivalent, releasing their debut album Dance Of December Souls at the end of 1993 and receiving immediate acclaim within the metal underground. With a sound that was both familiar and startlingly fresh, Katatonia\u2019s early works exhibited plenty of the elegance and subtlety that would later typify the band\u2019s work:<\/p>\n
1996\u2019s Brave Murder Day (featuring harsh vocals by Opeth\u2019s Mikael Akerfeldt) proved a major milestone, eliciting rave reviews and taking its creators away from the doom mainstream and into unique, uncharted territory. 1998\u2019s Discouraged Ones reaffirmed the Swedes\u2019 blossoming mastery of dark metallic wonder; their steadily increasing fascination with the vivid hues of progressive rock and other non-metal elements enabling their sound to evolve exponentially with each successive creative splurge.<\/p>\n
The impact of Tonight\u2019s Decision (1999) and Last Fair Deal Gone Down (2001) was equally undeniable. These were records that brimmed with ingenuity, melodic intuition and moments of emotionally devastating dynamism: the sound of Katatonia\u2019s metal roots being allowed to assimilate a richer, more diverse array of influences and textures.<\/p>\n
With countless lauded live shows and festival appearances, the band\u2019s status as one of heavy music\u2019s most revered acts was etched in stone by the time the 21st century truly kicked into gear. 2003\u2019s Viva Emptiness and 2006\u2019s The Great Cold Distance were, as Renkse and Nystr\u00f6m further refined their mercurial songwriting talents. As the notion of progressive music began to exert its allure over open-minded music fans to a degree that it manifestly hadn\u2019t since the early 70s, Katatonia were perfectly positioned to benefit. As their audience and appeal broadened, they began to make ever more adventurous and absorbing music, hitting a dizzying peak with 2009\u2019s Night Is The New Day, an album widely hailed as a masterpiece. Continuing on that triumphant path and maintaining that rich vein of form, both 2012\u2019s Dead End Kings and its delicate, re-imagined counterpart Dethroned & Uncrowned a year later inspired praise and plaudits galore. Whether dismantling and reconstructing their metal roots or diving into more ethereal sonic waters, Katatonia have been on a creative roll for more than two decades. Fast-forward to 2016 and the band are poised to release what may well prove to be their most affecting and powerful album to date. The Fall Of Hearts is Katatonia\u2019s tenth studio album; a remarkable achievement in itself, but the sheer quality and consistency of the band\u2019s music remains their most striking trait.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst of all we\u2019re proud to even have accomplished a tenth album,\u201d says Nystr\u00f6m. \u201cWith that now in the bag, we\u2019re pleased to see where it has taken us musically. We knew we had to come up with a great follow-up to Dead End Kings as we never considered Dethroned & Uncrowned to be our last album, but nevertheless that album also played a leading role in where we could potentially take our sound. The objective was to confidently deliver the best album we could within the current allowance of our musical and creative abilities.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAs always, it is both a struggle and a pleasure to write music when you have set your own high standards,\u201d adds Renkse. \u201cThis album was no exception. Our aim is always to break free of whatever norms there are, if ever so slightly. We focus a lot on details once we have the big picture mapped out, and it\u2019s always a great journey to get there. This album needed to be more adventurous, I think, and that became our pole star.\u201d<\/p>\n
One listen to the sprawling majesty of Takeover, The Fall Of Hearts\u2019 extraordinary opening track, will confirm that Katatonia have both further refined their unmistakable sound and obliterated many more musical barriers on their latest and perhaps greatest album to date. From driving, muscular and artfully metallic anthems like Serein and Sanction through to the mesmerising vulnerability and elegance of more restrained fare like Decima and The Night Subscriber, The Fall Of Hearts demonstrates how far Katatonia have come since their earliest attempts to harness the melancholic potential of heavy music. It also proves that the band have grown in stature and skill as the decades have melted away.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were 17 years old when we wrote the songs for Dance Of December Souls,\u201d Renkse notes. \u201cBut I think we still keep the same kind of foundation on which our music is built, a strong will to create something emotionally unique. We just do it differently these days. We definitely have our roots in metal, so I would say we are still a metal band, but perhaps one of the more diverse ones.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCoincidentally, there\u2019s a little guitar melody that was written and first introduced on Dance Of December Souls that was subconsciously lifted for a piano theme on the new album,\u201d Nystr\u00f6m states. \u201cBut you have to look far and deep if you seek to find other parallels and connections. Our musical signals and language have changed considerably from 1993 to 2016, but I can still sense a common message in the atmosphere sustaining since day one. Maybe you could call us a progressive metal band with a deep passion for non-metal music? It\u2019s easy to reach all the branches in the tree and let them sway when you have a firm root to climb.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now adored by fans from across the musical spectrum, from diehard metalheads to dedicated proggers and far beyond, Katatonia arrive at their latest milestone in the rudest of health and with collective spirits ablaze with the opportunities that music continues to present. The Fall Of Hearts is an immersive and frequently disarming journey through the bleakest of metaphysical winters, but your guides through the fog have just enough hope in their hearts to ensure that the experience is both hugely enriching and quite unlike anything else the world has to offer. Mankind\u2019s inevitable demise may be looming ahead, but Katatonia continue to wring life-giving drops of hope from the fabric of our collective downfall. Long may their kaleidoscopic vision of sorrow bring solace to us all.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe future is one step closer to the decline of everything we know,\u201d Nystr\u00f6m concludes. \u201cWe wander the twilight like everyone else in slow decay. An end is forever certain, so don\u2019t take Katatonia for granted. Enjoy the time left, like we do.\u201d<\/p>\n
DOM LAWSON<\/p>\n
Website: http:\/\/www.katatonia.com\/<\/a> The passing of time brings longer shadows and darker thoughts to the human mind. Melancholy\u2019s cry is never far from our ears, even in the happiest of times. But while there is no true answer to the meaning of our brief lives, music will always be a reliable and trustworthy companion through fear and uncertainty. Perhaps more than any other… Read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2017","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","xfolkentry"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/PbEcyi-wx","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iskcrocks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iskcrocks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iskcrocks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iskcrocks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iskcrocks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iskcrocks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2017\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iskcrocks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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