Here are some some notes that came to me while listening to the album and EPs again, and reading the thread.
*Great job so far to Lethean. I wasn't quite sure how much you were going to do for the first post, and you definitely threw down the gauntlet and raised the bar. But Katatonia is a sublime band, so they definitely deserve it.
*This is my least favorite and least listened to Katatonia album, and it's the furthest away from the sound they would eventually evolve into that I love. It's still excellent though, and worthy of your time. I've met a lot of extreme metal purists who love this album to death and hate their later material. Extreme metal elitists are annoying though, so I put little stock in their opinion. It's a quite unique-sounding album, with a black/death/doom sound that Metal-Archives used to call "dark metal", along with Bethlehem and other similar artists at that time. This and some of the EPs in this era are really the only time you get much of a black metal vibe from Katatonia. They even used to wear corpse paint in the early days - quite amusing now.
*They were known as Melancholium initially, which is actually kind of apt.
*There are also some rehearsal demos floating around from '91 and '92. The sound recording is so abysmal that they're pretty unlistenable to me though. Luke, if you say you're not an audiophile and don't notice albums not sounding right, I think these might break you. But they did do a rerecording of some of them last year, and they're now far more listenable, and prove that Jonas can still do harsh vocals on occasion if needed.
*This is the only album on which Jonas does harsh vocals the whole time. Recording and touring this album blew his voice out and he gave it up other than rare exceptions like Ayreon's
01011001 and a few other one-off recent B-sides and such.
*This is also the only time they played in standard tuning.
*Jonas' drumming has a unique vibe here. In particular, his double bass playing is pretty loose. Remember, this is before the days of digital studios, Beat Detective and such, so you were limited to doing multiple takes, or having someone who was a wizard with splicing tapes, so unevenness and some flubs add a character that often isn't present in modern, pristinely-recorded albums.
*Also, Jonas' nickname of "Lord Seth" is a reference to Set/Seth, who was an Egyptian god of war, violence, chaos, disorder, foreigners, storms, deserts, and was related to Isis, Osiris, Horus, Nephthys, and Tawaret. Scandinavian teen culture was kind of wild in the 80s from all my readings, and there was definitely a coolness to being sort of edgy and mysterious back around that time period. Maybe now too, but at that point the death/black metal scene was the novel thing, so it was funneled into that.
*There are some really great guitar harmonies, most notably on "In Silence Enshrined", "Velvet Thorns (Of Drynwhl)", and "Tomb of Insomnia".
*The icy digital synths from Dan really add a lot, particularly on tracks like "In Silence Enshrined, "Velvet Thorns (Of Drynwhyl)", "Tomb of Insomnia", "Dancing December", "Without God", "Shades of Emerald Fields", with some really great doubling melodies and such. I think that's Dan's neo-prog and AOR love coming through. To Luke's point, synths were much more welcome in certain styles of black metal than in death metal, so it wasn't quite as much of a stretch as you might think. There's a whole subgenre of music, dungeon synth, which is mostly populated by guys from black metal bands playing synthesizers in medieval styles, started by guys from Emperor, Burzum and others.
*A major feature in this era are Anders' clean arpeggiated guitar lines, often with a fairly present delay and sometimes chorus and other effects. "Scarlet Heavens" is an especially good example. It's the manifestation of their significant influence from gothic rock, as they were a big fan of bands like Fields of the Nephilim, which will come up again later.
*I love the incorporation of acoustic guitar in tracks like "Velvet Thorns (Of Drynwhyl)", "Tomb of Insomnia", "Midwinter Gates (Prologue)", and "The Northern Silence". They weren't quite as overt about it as bands like Opeth or In Flames, but even in more limited moments it really adds a lot to the variety of their sound.
*I love how audible the bass is, and how it's not just root notes following the guitars. There are even a few bass breaks and leads, like in "Tomb of Insomnia", "Funeral Wedding", and "Without God". It's especially nice in an album with so many black metal influences, because black metal is a poster child for lacking bass in the mix. This is another example of how gothic rock was a big influence on their sound, because it tends to have more prominent bass than most genres.
*I suppose Lethean and I differ on harsh vocal styles. I like a bit of variety, but in general I prefer the presentation to be centered around a moderately deep bellow, precisely because it sounds monstrous and inhuman. This will come up on the next album even more.
*Also, Lethean and I co-hosting this is turning out even better than I hoped, since it appears some of our preferences and knowledge sets are complementary. He mentions not being as familiar with doom metal, which has become arguably my favorite metal subgenre in the past decade. I'm spread too thin in general to have any true deep expertise, but the atmospheric varieties of doom are a particular favorite, and this definitely hits that vibe at times.
*To Luke's comment about the similarities between this and Opeth's
Orchid, that's absolutely something I've noticed. "Tomb of Insomnia" especially feels almost like it could have been on that album. Although incidentally, I also love the tone of Anders' heavily-effected leads on that track, which do differentiate them from Opeth, who had a bit of a different guitar style in that regard. "Dancing December" and "Without God" have a similar feel as well on some lead lines, with a very wet sound.
*"Scarlet Heavens" is a track I like quite alot, it's their tribute to the stylings of a band like Sisters of Mercy. I probably listen to a lot more gothic rock and offshoots than Lethean, so I quite like that bass/baritone vocal delivery.
*Those W.A.R. compilations are pretty legendary in metal lore. They're an acronym for Wrong Again Records, one of the more intriguing labels of the time, as they would contract bands to send exclusive songs that they would package together. "Black Erotica" there is an early version of a song from the next album. Some nice fills from Jonas there, he was growing as a drummer before giving it up.
*As Lethean mentioned them, October Tide is a great side project of theirs with Jonas worth checking out if you want more music in styles closer to what Katatonia was doing in the 90s. It also led to the Normann brothers joining and constituting arguably the most iconic Katatonia lineup later on.
*Also mentioned, Diabolical Masquerade is also a fantastic side project (with Anders and Dan) to check out for more black metal focus with some really great albums exploring different facets of it. I kind of love how we're talking about Dan as if he was an official member of the band already. I knew he was involved with their earlier stuff as well, but generally I've thought more about him being the drummer on a later album, I'd sort of forgotten how heavy his fingerprint is on this album. His own set of influences (prog rock, Swedish death metal, gothic rock in particular) are very apropos for Katatonia as well though.
*Nice catch to TAC on Slayer. I hear it as more Metallica-sounding, but yes, "Palace of Frost" has an overt thrash riff near the beginning, which is pretty unusual for them. There's another obvious one in "Shades of Emerald Fields" as well. One of my favorite books is Daniel Ekeroth's
Swedish Death Metal, so I'll try and insert tidbits I recall from it when I can. One I remember him describing was that Sweden didn't really have much of a thrash metal scene, but they were really into the British D-beat and crust punk bands like Discharge, so a lot of Swedish death metal wound up being fairly thrashy since hardcore punk was a heavy influence on most of the thrash bands of the 80s. Katatonia did not inherit the speed of those bands though.
*"The Northern Silence" is the first appearance of clean vocals, which I believe are from Dan, I would have to check old interviews, but it sure sounds like him, and he's credited for backing vocals on the album. They're just for a short section and a tad buried in the mix, but definitely stand out. There are also a few on "Shades of Emerald Fields."
*I love Anders' solo in "Funeral Wedding". The tone and vibe of it reminds me a bit of the classic solo on "December" by All About Eve, another of my favorite bands. Both are in that "Comfortably Numb" Gilmourian tradition of letting notes ring out for an epic feel. I'm not sold on the drums on that song though, they sound unusually triggered, which doesn't really fit their sound.
*Luke's Paradise Lost comparison is apt. I quite liked
Draconian Times ages ago, but had ignored much of their ever-mounting discography until just a few years back. At that point I was a bit surprised at how much it was obvious that they had influenced some of my favorite bands, Katatonia of course being one of them.
*In regards to TAC's question about Dan Swano's popularity at this point, I think he was seen as an up and coming guy, most known for Edge of Sanity and other projects, but it was the first year of him opening Unisound studios, so he wasn't considered the production wizard he's now known as yet.
*I love the counterpoint guitar melodies near the end of "Black Erotica". There are additionally some killer guitar melodies and harmonies in "Love of the Swan". Anders has always been great with using effects pedals, and there's some cool flanger over a number of parts in this cut.
Favorite tracks - "Velvet Thorns", "Tomb of Insomnia", and "Scarlet Heavens". Remember I said in the "musical confessions" thread that I'm not crazy about epics? Here are some exceptions. These tracks each push into the 10-14 minute range, but are full of greatness. If you only have time for a few songs from this era, check out these.
*Overall, this experience has already been enjoyable and worthwhile, even for my least favorite album from them. Honestly, listening to this more carefully to recall things to talk about, I've noticed little details I don't remember hearing before, and this is probably the most I've liked this album yet. It's always in the shadow of their even better later albums, but I'm understanding increasingly why for a portion of their fans and metal fans in general this is one of the most singular and iconic albums ever recorded.
*Lethean posted a bit earlier than I was expecting (but I love the initiative!), so I had to do a quick listen and throw some thoughts together. If I think of anything else I'll post later, or just save it as I work on the writeup for the next two albums. I'm a little bit intimidated now, I definitely need to up my game. I love competition though, a healthy amount of it brings out a little extra from everyone, like those roulettes!
Topic: Katatonia Discography Discussion: Sky Void of Stars (2023) (Read 22488 times)
