Tonight's Decision (1999)
1. For My Demons 5:47
2. I Am Nothing 4:37
3. In Death, a Song 4:51
4. Had to (Leave) 6:03
5. This Punishment 2:46
6. Right Into the Bliss 5:04
7. No Good Can Come of This 4:24
8. Strained 4:15
9. A Darkness Coming 5:01
10. Nightmares by the Sea* 4:15
11. Black Session 7:00
2003 Reissue Bonus tracks:
12. No Devotion 4:48
13. Fractured 5:52
*Jeff Buckley cover
At the end of the album, the last song (either Black Session or Fractured depending on the version) has some silence and then a beautiful hidden instrumental track.
Lineup:Jonas Renkse - vocals
Anders Nyström - guitars, keyboards, backing vocals
Fredrik Norrman - guitars and bass
Dan Swanö - session drums
The liner notes say all music and lyrics by Nyström/Renkse. It could be the same deal as before with all music by Anders and all lyrics by Jonas, but I don't know 100%. Anders mentioned that this was still a very creative period for him and he wrote all of the demos in a relatively short period of time.
Tonight's Decision is their first album with Peaceville Records, who as Litho indicated, signed them on the strength of Discouraged Ones. It seems that Avantgarde Music actually released them so they could sign with Peaceville and that’s pretty awesome - you usually hear about the negatives when it comes to the business side of the music industry. Avantgarde Music is thanked in the liner notes of Tonight's Decision.
At the time of recording, they still hadn't found a drummer. Jonas said that he tried to play some of the songs, but he hadn't played drums since he recorded Discouraged Ones. The studio made some calls and brought someone in for the recording. Jonas said that he sounded great warming up, but then when it was time to actually record, it didn't work out. He struggled on just one song for the whole day.
So then they asked Dan Swano (who was not producing this time), and he arrived in the morning, recorded the drums for all 13 songs in one day, and left that night. They played him the demos, he made some notes that he taped to the drum kit, and then recorded to a click track while they would call out changes through the microphone. I think the drumming here is a step up from Discouraged Ones, but I imagine a lot more could have been done with more time in the studio or for Dan to learn the songs.
The rest of the recording process went well, and Mikael Åkerfeldt co-produced the vocals again.
I'm not sure what genre you would call this album and Discouraged Ones. I always think of these albums together, even though they are quite different from each other.
Jonas is very much still finding his voice here, but I think there's a definite improvement from Discouraged Ones. I've said it before and will probably again - I'm very glad to have this opportunity to hear how his voice changed like this. Most of the time, or at least as it relates to the bands I listen to, the singer may improve over time but even on their first album their voice is more set. With Katatonia it's almost like witnessing someone learning how to sing and sharing it all with us.
Despite the vocals still being rough as Professor Peart alluded to, I kinda think they just work most of the time with this set of songs. You have to (or, one has to, or at least I had to) get used to it, but then it fits.
In the end, I just like the songs here, and again I like Anders a lot; his playing and his creativity keeps me listening. A song like Had to (Leave) is a good example; at first listen I wouldn’t really like it much. But I like the way the music changes back and forth and then there's a middle section that's really cool and catches my ear. Then it makes me relate more strongly to the whole song.
Favorite track: A Darkness Coming. When Tonight's Decision was new to me and I hadn't gotten used to the vocals and wasn't sure if this album was for me, that's the song that drew me in. It's beautiful and when I hear it, it takes me somewhere else, I'm in the song instead of where I physically am.
Other favorites for me are For My Demons, Strained, and Black Session. And No Devotion, which is a bonus track that's just as good as if not better than many of the main tracks. This (imo) will prove to be the case many times in future Katatonia albums as well. BTW, the entire track is great but the last minute and a half, starting around 3:10, is incredible.
LyricsIn general:
I’ll just say upfront that Jonas Renkse is my favorite lyricist. I think the lyrics are a bigger contributor as to why Katatonia makes such an impact on me. I used to say that the music was way more important to me than the lyrics. Music first, and if the lyrics are good, that’s a bonus. And in a way that is still true; if I don’t like the music, it doesn’t matter how good the lyrics are. Maybe Bob Dylan really is the best lyric writer ever - I wouldn’t know, because I can’t stand his voice. But with Katatonia the lyrics have taken a much bigger role. A single line is kind of what hooked me in the first place, and it’s a combination of the lyrics and the vocals and the music that creates emotions and connections and imagery that I don’t feel when listening to anything else, at least not on such a consistent basis.
For Tonight’s Decision, I think the lyrics are already really good. They only get better and better with time, but some of that connection/imagery/emotion thing happens here for me too. Which, besides liking what Anders does here, is another reason that these older albums have worked for me.
Some of my favorites:
For My Demons:You would never sleep at night
If you knew what I’ve been through
And this thought is all I have
To trust upon when light is gone
I Am Nothing:Like someone called my name
But I didn’t care to look that way
I just fixed my eyes into the crowd
It would have been strange to turn around
Right into the Bliss:By a black road
Giving a brief smile
Something’s on the way
Forgotten for a while
And you try to speak this without a voice
Down by a black road
We try to forget
And try to make it through
No Good Can Come of This:I read a letter I never sent
And saw me smiling on a picture
This is nothing I remember
Whatever made me feel so
With Strained and A Darkness Coming, I really like the mood the entire lyrics create, even if I might not quote specific lines.
I should go back and add some for Discouraged Ones as well - maybe I’ll do that in between this post and the next.
The artworkThe cover of Tonight's Decision was their first collaboration with Travis Smith, who has done many many (many) great album covers over the years. Almost all of Katatonia's, and bands such as Opeth, Riverside, Redemption, Anathema, Nevermore, and more. I believe the Tonight's Decision cover is one of earliest covers that helped to build his name.
Most of their album covers include a bird or at least wings, even Brave Murder Day and Discouraged Ones, and the bird is prominent on this cover as well.
Here are some pictures that I think are from the Tonight's Decision session - only 3 band members and the train tracks go with the album artwork:
New members and live shows Peaceville put them on a tour with Paradise Lost, but they still didn't have a drummer or a bass player. Fredrik Norrman finally recommended his brother Mattias, a guitar player who also played bass. And Mattias had played with drummer Daniel Liljekvist in another band. The tour was supposed to start soon, so this was pretty much their only option. But as it turned out, they were very impressed with Daniel's drumming and how quickly he had learned the songs. Daniel had never heard of Katatonia at that time and was given a tape with Discouraged Ones on one side and Tonight's Decision on the other. No one told him which songs to learn, so he learned them all. When they all met up for the first time, they immediately began to play For My Demons. While they were really impressed with Daniel, Daniel was impressed by them, thought the playing was tight and he enjoyed playing with "real musicians." The time they'd spent rehearsing for the nonexistent Discouraged Ones tour probably paid off. The tour went well, and both new members decided to join full time, so Katatonia finally had a full lineup and things were starting to look up.
Anders however, wasn't happy paying the management company that Peaceville had set them up with. He didn't feel that Katatonia was being supported or pushed enough aside from the Paradise Lost tour, so they broke off with the management company and he slowly began taking on a business role himself.
In 2000, they played some shows in Poland with Opeth, including a short set at the Metalmania festival. They traveled by train, but weren't booked seats, so they were standing where they could; at one point in the train's bathroom because there was no room anywhere else. They also made their first US live appearance that year at Milwaukee Metal Fest. They've described it as their worst ever live show (though they had a great response from the audience which made it worth it). They were told to come to the US as tourists and bring no equipment or instruments and that everything would be provided, but things didn't go well. Equipment troubles, bad sound, etc.
You can find the entire Milwaukee set on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/Zyh1iJpAOI8The sound quality is not great, there are some mistakes, but for being their worst show, it's not so bad. There's a lot of focus on Anders and it's nice getting to see him play back then. You can see him singing along to the songs (not in front of a mic for backing vocals), and he still does that today. And seeing Daniel Liljekvist is great as well. Jonas sounds better than I would have expected, but the vocals are low in the mix and maybe that helps in this case. He was definitely not the most comfortable frontman, but he does manage to joke that it was a preview when they started playing the wrong song.
They felt that they should have toured more during this time as it was the way to grow the band, but at the same time, touring was too expensive for them so they were in a difficult position there.
Side ProjectsJust some brief notes: 1999 was Jonas’ last record with October Tide (drums and guitars - they had someone else do the vocals). Anders still had his Diabolical Masquerade black metal project which he had done 3 albums for.
Topic: Katatonia Discography Discussion: Sky Void of Stars (2023) (Read 22633 times)
