11.04.2009

KATATONIA – “Night Is the New Day”

А мonotone soundtrack to autumn cuts the line of good albums

Yes. It is not a surprise that Katatonia release an album not in the summer but when the autumn has already killed all warmth and joy from life. A lot of melancholy and doom is radiated by “Night is the New Day”. And this is exactly what is expected from it!

The band had definitely been on the rise lately. Almost no one was disappointed by their last three albums and not a few of the fans actually wonder exactly which one of them is their favorite. Sadly the present release’s chances to fit in there are next to none. It is simply far from being as good as “Last Fair Deal Gone Down”, for example.

Yeah, it might me fitting for such a sad band to sound tired. No one expects energy to flow out of the disc. And that is the last thing that you could find in 80% of the songs. It is just that the band also gives you a few good songs that you hang on to like a drowning man to a straw. But then the straw breaks and the drowning man ends up with nothing but lame tunes.

The positive moments here are ones like opener “Forsaker” that to be fair wouldn’t have been out of place on a Fear Factory album. But what I said about New Model Army’s new one and not so heavy bands experimenting with a heavy sound for just one song, is in full force here as well. From there on the album is something like a nap parade of songs, briefly interrupted by moments like “Liberation” and “Idle Blood” or some more single interesting riff. But for an album with 11 tracks this is far from enough.

The good thing in “Night is the New Day” is the good quality of the production. All the instruments could be heard and Jonas Renkse’s vocals are sad and awesome as ever. So – they saved no money and made sure that the album sounds as crushing as possible. And, if you are looking for something dark, melancholic and somewhat heavy for the soundtrack of your sorrow (or goth pose) – this is your thing.

The moment the sun shines this album is fucked, though.

Verdict: 3 / 6

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