Katatonia Discography Discussion: Sky Void of Stars (2023)

[nick_z]

I think I started reading something and I drifted off.

 

Give it another listen...it's worth it! Great song, imo...

[Lethean]

Well, I didn't say it was accessible to ME! 

[LithoJazzoSphere]

Yeah, if TAC isn't sold by TGCD, which is their most energetic album, they're not likely to be a band for him.  Glad to hear he likes the drumming though, having complained about it early on.    Melodies are a trickier thing though, they don't pop out with Katatonia like they do some other bands.  Someone like Bruce Dickinson clubs you over the head with them, Jonas is much more subtle.  It usually takes at least half a dozen listens before each Katatonia album starts coming alive for me, even having listened to them as a band a great deal. 

It's sounding like my rankings of the next three albums will probably not be the norm (at least not on this forum).

I'm really curious about this.  It'll be interesting to see what the consensus is on Dead End Kings next week or so.  If you read a lot of commentary online, the majority opinion tends to be that it's one of their weakest albums, but DTF is a very different sort of place, and it's highly unusual that Lethean and I, as probably the biggest Katatonia fans here, both consider it our favorite album of theirs.  Articulating exactly why is going to be a challenge as well, so much of it is about associations and salient memories that I can't really fully explain in this medium. 

Feels generally a tad too downtuned for me.

I just have to wonder how much of this is generational, and how much is just personal preference.  By the time I was a teenager bands were already tuning a lot lower increasingly commonly, 7-string guitars were taking off, and the bassy sounds of nu-metal and such were everywhere, so that's a sound I was immersed in fairly young.  I don't know if there are many people significantly older than me that have a preference for lower tunings like I and many others do.  Of course they've kept getting lower since then for many bands, and I don't have as much of a preference for tunings that are basically an octave below standard tuning like some people probably a decade younger than me do, even apart from my penchant for particular keys. 

[nick_z]

I do agree with Lethean, though, that there is plenty of melody in The Great Cold Distance. It's sometimes a little less obvious, and it's weaved into a more aggressive sound (overall)...but the beauty of the album, for me, is that the melodies do reveal themselves with more and more listens.

Not to say you should spend an inordinate amount of time with it  Just saying that if you do give it a few more listens, some of the stuff will reveal itself a bit more

[billboy73]

Everything here just creates such a darkness, and the album flows so well.  For me, this is a record to put on with a glass of bourbon and just get lost into it's world.  Like I said, it just works so well as a whole, complete package.

*Yes.* Except for the bourbon part for me...

Night is just one of those records for me.  It's like Scenes from a Memory, The Downward Spiral, Colors to name a few, that I usually don't just listen to a few tracks from it.  If I'm gonna give it a spin, I'm making time to take the whole thing in at home, or I'm going on a 50 minute car ride, or a nice, long walk.

[Lethean]

Everything here just creates such a darkness, and the album flows so well.  For me, this is a record to put on with a glass of bourbon and just get lost into it's world.  Like I said, it just works so well as a whole, complete package.

*Yes.* Except for the bourbon part for me...

Night is just one of those records for me.  It's like Scenes from a Memory, The Downward Spiral, Colors to name a few, that I usually don't just listen to a few tracks from it.  If I'm gonna give it a spin, I'm making time to take the whole thing in at home, or I'm going on a 50 minute car ride, or a nice, long walk.

My listening is mostly album based anyway, but I agree with this.  I will occasionally listen to specific tracks or make playlists but most of the time I listen to the whole album, bonus tracks included.

[Lethean]

Some miscellaneous things while I'm working on the new write up, and while we're waiting for TAC and luke to chime in on Night Is the New Day. 

Fun little roulette fact - or at least I think it is.    TAC had an Opposites Attract roulette where he would give 2 words (that are opposites), and each participant had to send songs with those words in the title.  His first round was Day and Night, so I could not resist sending Day and Then the Shade and New Night.  I told Stadler (who was the secretary for this roulette because TAC was doing it anonymously) that I should get bonus points not only for both songs being on the same album, but for both words being in the title of said album.  I never received those bonus points, so clearly Stadler just didn't pass it on...   I probably should have sent The Night Subscriber instead of New Night (but TAC probably wouldn't have liked it either, and I couldn't pass up the symmetry). 

Jonas had some guest vocal appearances in the years before/during Night Is the New Day:
(TAC, don't worry about more on your plate to listen to; I sent you all of these songs in the concept album round of your EP roulette )

2007 - Swallow the Sun - Hope - track 3: The Justice of Suffering https://youtu.be/DBzHNcITYdw
2008 - Ayreon - 01011001 - multiple tracks; Waking Dreams is the one where he is featured most https://youtu.be/SWSajvZMDwQ
2009 - Pantheon I - Worlds I Create - track 4: Ascending https://youtu.be/siKAVhK02GM
2009 - Long Distance Calling - Avoid the Light - track 5: The Nearing Grave https://youtu.be/VsR0cgJRw-Q

I recommend all of the above tracks for those who haven't heard them; The Nearing Grave and Waking Dreams are my favorites of the bunch.   TAC's favorites were Waking Dreams and Ascending.

[nick_z]

That Long Distance Calling album is really good, by the way...and Jonas on that song is just the icing on the cake 

[The Realm]

Yes, agree. I love that Long Distance Calling album and The Nearing Grave is brilliant.

[Lethean]

Dead End Kings(2012)


1.    The Parting                               4:52
2.    The One You Are Looking For Is Not Here                 3:52
3.    Hypnone                                4:07
4.    The Racing Heart                  4:06
5.    Buildings                                3:28
6.    Leech                                     4:23
7.    Ambitions                               5:07
8.    Undo You                               4:56
9.    Lethean                                  4:39
10.  First Prayer                            4:28
11.  Dead Letters                          4:49
Bonus tracks:
12.  Second                                      4:09
13.  Hypnone (Frank Default Hypnocadence mix)*  4:46
14.  The Act of Darkening                     4:36

*This remix didn’t appear on any versions of the albums with the other bonus tracks, at least not that I’ve found.  So if you have all 3 bonus tracks I think you can make your own order; I like closing with The Act of Darkening.

Lineup:
Jonas Renkse - vocals, guitars, keyboards
Anders Nyström - guitars, backing vocals, keyboards
Per Eriksson - guitars
Niklas Sandin - bass
Daniel Liljekvist - drums

Additional:
Frank Default - keyboards
Silje Wergeland - guest vocals on The One You Are Looking For Is Not Here
JP Asplund - additional percussion

Songwriting:
Jonas: 1-4, 6, 7
Anders: 5, 8, 11, 14
Jonas and Anders: 10, 12
Jonas and Per: 9

Lyrics:
Anders: 8 and 14
Jonas: everything else

This is the only album with this specific lineup.  Niklas and Per became permanent members after joining for the Night Is the New Day tour.  I don’t think the lineup change made a big impact on their sound.  Per Eriksson does have a writing credit for Lethean, which features a guitar solo that is not the norm for Katatonia.  Other than that, I’m sure there are some subtle influences with two different players, but as far as the song-writing goes, the Norrman brothers hadn’t written much in general and nothing for the last album.  Anders wrote more than he had for the previous album, feeling relieved by not having to do all of the business stuff by himself anymore. 

Jonas and Anders toured some abandoned train tunnels and hospitals in Sweden during or around the time of the writing process for Dead End Kings, and it had an influence on the lyrics and artwork for the album.

Litho will be better at describing how it sounds.  For me, it sounds quite different from Night Is the New Day, but I do agree with Litho that it’s not the more dramatic change like there was between other albums.  To me the individual songs are quite different and Dead End Kings is a little heavier in the sense of heavier guitars; and the vibe/mood is a bit different.  But that last part, the mood being different, I think probably only comes from listening to the albums so much.  They have their own character.  Both albums, imo, do have that beautiful darkness that billboy mentioned.

The title kind of refers to the band and their level of success - I’ll just leave some quotes from them to explain it, since I thought it was interesting. And I like Jonas’ turn of phrase.

Anders - "The title is a reflection on how people measure Katatonia on a level of success. Having just celebrated our 20th year anniversary it seems like people take for granted we should be famous and rich and dwell in mansions, but we're not anywhere near any of that. We make our living on minimal salaries and have to work hard to pay our bills every month like most of the population out there. Explaining these facts to people always ends up with the same questions like, "Then why do you do it? Seems like you're just in a dead end..." and you try elaborate further that just having a band, the same band you formed 20 years ago, is a success in itself where we get to do what is the most meaningful in our lives: to write and perform our own music, without answering to anyone else. We're proud to be the “Dead End Kings!”"

Jonas - "'Dead End Kings' is about the corridors of our mind from where there is no return. Be a king or queen in your own right in these hallways, even at the dead end. Carry your burden with pride. That's what we are doing, twenty years and counting. Kings, because we believe in what we are creating, in our own disturbing faith."

Katatonia did a lot of touring for this album as well - another 2 year tour cycle, and they came to North America on 3 separate tours. 

I think the band must have liked this album a lot, because in 2013 they crowd-funded and released…

Dethroned & Uncrowned (2013)

1.    The Parting                               4:52
2.    The One You Are Looking For Is Not Here                 3:52
3.    Hypnone                                4:07
4.    The Racing Heart                  4:06
5.    Buildings                                3:28
6.    Leech                                     4:23
7.    Ambitions                               5:07
8.    Undo You                               4:56
9.    Lethean                                  4:39
10.  First Prayer                            4:28
11.  Dead Letters                          4:49

This is a reworked and stripped down version of Dead End Kings, with the heavy guitars removed and some acoustic guitars and additional keyboard parts added.  They made a point to say that the vocals had not been rerecorded, and once I heard it I think I understood why - sometimes they sounded different.  Especially (to me) Silje’s vocals on The One You Are Looking For Is Not Here.  Maybe everything else going on in the song gives you a different impression of the vocals in the original..

I will always love the original more, but I also love these versions.  You get a different taste of the songs and get to hear the vocals very clearly.  Buildings is possibly the most different sounding (and one of the best rearrangements I think).  I think the stripped down versions sounding so good is a testament to how good these songs really are.

Line-up Changes
In 2014, Per Eriksson and Daniel Liljekvist left the band - not at the same time.  Per left in February, and it was announced as a “difference in views” as well as Per’s moving to Barcelona.  He remained in Bloodbath for a few more years however.  Bruce Soord (Pineapple Thief) was announced as a touring guitar player for their upcoming acoustic tour, and Tomas Åkvik filled in as a touring guitarist for their regular shows.

Daniel left in April, putting out a statement that it was not a “difference in views” but that he needed to focus on his family and getting a normal job, as times were difficult for musicians.  In interviews since, the band has mentioned that it had been getting harder and harder for him to leave his family to go on tour.  Daniel Moilanen was announced as a touring drummer for upcoming festivals, and JP Asplund, who had done some of the percussion on Dead End Kings, would do the acoustic tour.

Sanctitude (2015)


1.  In the White   05:39
2.  Ambitions   05:01
3.  Teargas   03:10
4.  Gone   03:47
5.  A Darkness Coming   05:16
6.  One Year from Now   04:09
7.  The Racing Heart   04:25
8.  Tonight's Music   04:15
9.  Sleeper   04:38
10. Undo You   04:49
11. Lethean   04:47
12. Day   04:37
13. Idle Blood   04:31
14. Unfurl   06:32
15. Omerta   03:37
16. Evidence   06:05
17. The One You Are Looking for Is Not Here   04:27

In 2014, Katatonia did an acoustic tour for Dethroned & Uncrowned, and included reworked versions from older songs as well.  I would love for them to do this again sometime, whether it’s to support an album or not.  JP Asplund and Bruce Soord fill in for the members who had left.  Jonas plays guitar live for the first (and only?) time during this tour.  They recorded the London performance and released it on cd/dvd.  You can watch the full show here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-__vSzAJYI

I really love the version of Day here.  It’s a very nice song on Brave Murder Day but Jonas is a much better singer now and I like the emotions here.  Evidence and Omerta sound great, especially for having been additions mid-tour.  Sleeper is another favorite, and all of the Dead End Kings tracks, though I wish they’d done Buildings. The One You Are Looking For Is Not Here has a special guest, and it turned out perfectly.   

Dead End Kings track by track thoughts
The Parting - One of my favorites, and I now can’t really remember my initial thoughts on it from before it really hit me.  It’s not as immediate as a track like Forsaker or Leaders, but it’s the perfect way to open this album.  It’s heavy, it’s not heavy, it’s atmospheric, it’s so so dark.  The keyboards in the background work well with the guitars.  The vocals are so good, and the lyrics.  The shift into the quiet part at around 2:40 is beautiful, and then the shift again at 3:14… “take your well deserved step into darkness.”  Wow, wow, wow.

The One You Are Looking For Is Not Here - one of the earlier songs I got into; strong memories of this one on trails, and thinking there was something special here.  I like the way the guest vocals from Silje are there in the background to complement the song, but aren’t overpowering or the main focus.  This is a beautiful song and the ending always gives me chills.

Hypnone - The dead end king is here, black wings upon his back.  I most certainly do love the sound of no one coming by - a simple lyric that really resonates.  I like the heavy parts here a lot, the haunting vocals, the drumming.  I think Hypnone is a song that needs some time to work its way in but it’s incredible when it does.

The Racing Heart - possibly my second favorite Katatonia song after Lethean; sometimes my favorite.  It was definitely a companion to me when things weren’t so good - “come for a good time, it’s not what I have.”  And I would think “it’s not what I have either” but instead of feeling despair, I would feel stronger.  This song is all about the vocals and lyrics for me.  Live it’s the same way as well; I think I just stand there in awe.  And I think others might feel the same way as me; at most of the shows there was a hush over the crowd during this song but then a lot of cheering when it was done. 

Buildings - a great, short, heavy track.  I loved that they opened with this song when they opened for Opeth.  This will probably not make any sense, but this song makes me think of Available Light - lyrically.  Both songs have buildings, a city, wind, and light.  Buildings is the darker side of the equation.  In the case of both songs, I feel like I’m there.  I’m in that city, and I’m among the buildings towering above me, and the wind is moving through. 

Leech - I didn’t like this song at first.  Sometimes I was tempted to skip it; usually I didn’t because I generally like to listen to whole albums.  And then somehow I changed my mind, or it changed my mind for me.  Now I look forward to it a lot whenever I play the album, and like it’s placement after Buildings.

Ambitions - one of my favorite Katatonia songs.  Again it didn’t hit me like this until I’d been listening for a while, but now it’s really special right from the very beginning - as soon as it starts I feel some emotions.  Sing a song for the ones who never made it.  There is so much emotion and intensity in this song.

Undo You - the references to other Katatonia songs in the lyrics is really nicely done here.  The other lyrics are good too; Anders does a nice job on the few occasions where he writes lyrics.

Lethean - this is my most listened to song, maybe my favorite song if I could really have such a thing.  It’s heartbreaking, it’s dynamic, it’s intense, it’s emotional.  It’s very personal for me.  I don’t ever want them to stop playing this song live.

First Prayer - I think this is a great song to follow Lethean.  It probably gets overshadowed being between Lethean and Dead Letters, but it holds its own.  I think it’s very haunting and some of the vocals have such powerful emotions.  Around 2:24 - the guitars and then the keyboards in the background are really cool, then it picks up with the bass, and then the heavy guitars; I like the build up there a lot.

Dead Letters - very intense.  The guitars at the beginning are so so cool.  Well, and they’re pretty cool throughout the whole song.    This is one where I really like the contrast of heavy and light; it really works to create a great atmosphere here. 

Second - a fantastic bonus track.  In an interview, Anders said that Second was one of his favorites from the album session, and the reason it ended up as a bonus track is because it didn’t quite fit in the track list as well of the others, and the track list is something they spend a lot of time on.  I thought this was very interesting and is maybe a good explanation why some of these great bonus tracks don’t make the albums.  Maybe I agree with him that it’s one of the better ones, or maybe I don’t because they’re all so good.

Hypnone (Frank Default Hypnocadence mix) - I like this mix a lot.  Just another look at the song and a different mood for it.

The Act of Darkening - I think this is just a really really beautiful song and I love closing the album with it.  Probably my favorite lyrics from Anders.   I think this song is kind of magical.

[Lethean]

Let's have some lyrics:

Dead End Kings


The Parting
In the weak light
I saw you becoming the lie
Taking it all for granted like freedom
It’s something you’ll never have

The indifferent sky is made of lead and so beautiful
Submission, come you will!

Take your well-deserved step into darkness
I’ll become your eyes
You have no other
We have to walk along this wire
Trust the one that never trusted you


The One You Are Looking For Is Not Here
This breaking vow
Rest so near my tongue
Anchor of the cloud
Shade upon the sun
You took my word for it
The vanishing of doubt

Will unfold my empty space
Your time froze over

I must lead the way for this conclusion
I let you inherit these words I sing to you
See how death will bestow seclusion
The one you are looking for is hidden from view

In my absence now
Irrelevant time will pass
In nothingness abide
See the evening rise
And take my word for it
Focus is beyond your vision

Do you remember when
It didn’t used to be so dark
When everything was possible
Still

Hypnone
You will never rest
Until the stars burn out
My day is done
I love the sound of no one coming by
Tomb beneath the trees
The name unsung
The darkness in the cracks

I need the sound of rain
Wearing dependence down
The line must be kept so thin
To live near life
Not within

No need to take the test
Before the dark must shine
Reflect my eyes
And strip this creation of mine
Tomorrow is so long
The dead end king is here
Black wings upon his back


The Racing Heart
White sun
Spring of wealth
Come for a good time
It’s not what I have
Vibrate
Life on the line
My racing heart
Your vacant mind

If I sow a wind now
I will reap a storm
You saw me sliding away from the sun
And tomorrow
Who will come
And put their hand over mine
Mine with the burning shape of a gun

Washed out
Soul of money
Couldn’t keep the fire
It’s not what I do
Vibrate
Life on the line
My racing heart
It’s all I find


Buildings
On the concrete sky
I saw the buildings rise
But keep our lights in shadow still
In the wind’s eye
Our reflection dies
Glass shrines of muted will

Dead
Is the time that I see from here on out
This burial ground
One more down
And buildings recoil


Leech
So solitary
You have been
Your time starts to fade
Distorted sky
And you find me
Revolve inside
My blood is yours too
That’s what you say
It couldn’t be further from the truth

I see
You don’t want liberation
You keep belonging to what’s not even here


Ambitions
Hear my thin voice
Hear my words fall down
See my ambitions fade out
Had so much better times

At night
Walking on the tracks
Change my perspective
Idle hands
With wounds and cracks
Stale
Ineffective
But past
The veil the memories of things
Still so in love with you

Indecision
Sow the seed
Aspiration is never within reach
At night there is no other view
Sing a song for the ones who never made it

In the ward
Under yellow lights
Under linden trees I am
Transparent
And led to believe
That things would change if I go away
The lowering sky under which we go

Undo You
Time seal our ways
To the heart of our hiding place
When all our lifelines have been crossed
Some scars can never heal from what we lost

To fail the test and depart the strong
Is to light the way where you have gone
For only our funerals to come
A requiem, in death a song

One of these days
Hours pass yet the night stays
When your spirit won’t turn anew
The world shuts down with no goodbye to undo you

Lethean
How long
Is the pattern going to speak for you
How far can your voice reach
Your song below the night
From my view
I can see you
Shudder where you are standing
In the vision
Cyan blue

Now
October
This time you won’t be needing me

To run along the freeway
To weigh one’s heart against the oncoming dark
You left me with the pills
We had plans but you couldn’t make it
Through the trees
What took you so long
The high grass
What took you so long

Translate the fire
The venom’s rush inside your heart
How long can winter
Color your every word
And the skyline
Past the houses and the cities
Hyperopia
Carmine red

Now
This river
This time I will


First Prayer
You leave now
Leave my void of prayers
Take these words to go with you
Take the splinters
See them fall


Dead Letters
Trapped and choked
Erased my trail
Split the chest
My heart couldn’t feel more pale

Only once could I see clear

Vexation
Internal void
My dreams are getting darker and darker
And darker

This life before me
Its blood runs so still
The call of the bird
The song that makes the hours go

The change inactive
Dead letters
Form these words


Second
Sun has lost
Mountains fell
What took away our anchor
Snow in the old sky
Escape is a long dead end

We need to rise higher

Temples burn
Fires underneath
What controls our anger
Moon coming in
Sun has lost
Did you know
Mountains fell

Letting one second go on
To go over a lifetime.
We were such good friends
Will you find me where I am now


The Act of Darkening
Out of reach and gone from view
Now light is one step behind you
On the other side of the soul
The void revolves one final role

[Lethean]

And I thought I'd put my long and drawn out personal comments in a separate post so as not to bog down the main one.

Personal thoughts/reactions
Story time.

Dead End Kings is one of those life-changing albums for me. 

After seeing Katatonia live in 2011, I considered myself a fan and had plans to look into their older albums and learn more about them.  But I had a lot on my music plate in 2011 and 2012, and I'm the opposite of Litho - I obsess over listening to stuff rather than listening to a large volume.  The whole DT with Mangini thing happened and I saw lots of DT shows.  I finally saw Arcturus for the first time and I was listening to them constantly.  Leprous - Bilateral had completely blown me away, and then there were new albums from Borknagar, Anathema, Headspace (Damian Wilson), Threshold, and Clockwork Angels from Rush.

New Katatonia (and Threshold) came out just before the Rush tour and ProgPower, so I didn't have a lot of time with the album right away.  After a few listens I felt like it was very good and it did make me look at their tour dates with Devin Townsend a few more times.  I just couldn't find a way to make a show on that tour work between Rush and ProgPower, but I was more bummed about it after hearing their new album.  It was in my listening rotation that fall, it was very good, but it hadn’t yet revealed its full depths to me. 🙂

In January 2013, a friend posted his top albums of 2012. I didn't have a list ready, but replied to his saying that I was sure Katatonia and Threshold would both be higher on my list than they were on his.  I was also pretty sure Clockwork Angels was my favorite.  Eventually I went through my 2012 albums to make said list, listened to Dead End Kings, and never stopped. Didn’t make the list either.   I just fell into Dead End Kings.

I found myself wanting to listen to the album all the time.  It wasn’t that every song was suddenly this brilliant masterpiece and in fact I didn’t like Leech much at all at the time.  I just kept wanting to play the album; maybe it’s that I was starting to really connect with the album and its vibe.  Then the songs started to hit me.  It really started with Lethean, with one line actually. "To weigh one's heart against the oncoming dark."  I don't know exactly why it hit me the way that it did, but I played it over and over and over.  It was a combination of the lyric itself, his voice, the way he sings it.  And it did connect to my life - there *was* an oncoming dark.  Not in some mysterious psychic way - just that things weren’t great and logically I knew (and anyone would have) that it would be getting worse.  Of course, you can only rewind one line so many times, and so I’d listen to the whole chorus over and over.  And the entire song over and over.  The song is *incredible.* 

On it went from there.  The Racing Heart.  The One You Are Looking for Is Not Here.  Ambitions.  Some of these didn’t happen for months later, but the album as a whole was just all consuming for me at that time.  It went from a good album that I liked a lot, to a great album that I loved, to something really deep and special that I made a unique connection to.  It’s been 10 years, and that connection has only grown.  Some time last year I was listening to it and felt almost like I was hearing it for the first time, like I was discovering that it was even better than I already thought it was for the last 10 years and it was quite emotional and almost overwhelming. 

At the time, I felt like I wanted to listen to Dead End Kings 24/7, but I also wanted to hear all of their back catalog and I wanted to hear it now.  I bought a bunch of albums as mp3s and kind of overwhelmed myself trying to listen to them all at once, and of course kept going back to Dead End Kings.  Then I found out that Katatonia was coming back for another opening tour with Opeth, and when that tour started, I looked up the setlist and made myself a playlist to focus on.   This was a good idea because while I usually prefer listening to full albums, I need to give albums a lot of time to absorb them, and I’d been trying to cram it all in.  Their opening set was about the length of an album, so that worked well.  I included a few other songs that looked like they were played often, and I was set.

Though, I was starting to feel a little bit guilty at having only bought mp3s.  I’d previously moved away from buying cds except for my favorite bands that I already had a collection from.  I was walking around Gettysburg in between Rosfest sets listening to Katatonia and feeling like… with as much as I was getting out of the experience, I should have bought the cds to support them more.  And I was starting to want the cds for myself; but did I *really* need more cds?  I barely do more than rip the ones I already own.  I decided to send them a message on Facebook asking about how much of a difference there was. They replied that they made the least from mp3s; the best would be to buy from their merch booth at a show, then from their webstore.  But didn’t argue with people having a preference for digital and thanking me for buying them at all.  That was really all the excuse I needed, and I planned to buy some at the merch booth and then order the rest.

Show time:
It was May 2013 - I had a bunch of shows all in a row - Rosfest, Rush, Riverside several times, Kingcrow, and then Katatonia/Opeth was last.  I was looking forward to all of it, but I felt like I was *dying* to see Katatonia again on the strength of that first show and my new obsession with Dead End Kings.  But on the day itself my excitement was tempered a little.  Things were bad at the time.   The show was once again sold out, though at least I was prepared this time by getting my ticket in advance.   The venue was crowded, I was feeling claustrophobic, and generally unhappy.   And tired - from said bad things and also just all the travel to see the various shows.  I was part excited and part out of sorts.  Like at the 2011 show, I didn't even try to get close. But once the show started, nothing mattered anymore.  I didn’t think about being uncomfortable or unhappy or tired.  Or even how well I could see the stage.  Sometimes I watched, sometimes I closed my eyes, and it was just an intense and amazing experience.  Even better than the 2011 show, because now I had that connection to the songs.  They played four Dead End Kings songs - they opened with Buildings, played Dead Letters 2nd to last, and played The Racing Heart and Lethean back to back.  Which was phenomenal.  They closed with Forsaker.  They played Burn the Remembrance and Soil’s Song.  I have great memories of getting into both of those tracks in the lead up to the show, and a great memory of thinking Soil’s Song sounded even better live than on the album.  I couldn’t have wanted anything more from a show.  I felt energized and like it was a bit of a catharsis.  I knew I had to see them again, and as luck would have it, they were doing a headlining show the following week.  It would be a 12 hour drive - and that was fine.   And there was another opening show 4 hours further from that the day before, so why not do that too?  Both shows were incredible, especially the headlining show.  They opened with The Parting, which had just gotten to the point of *really* hitting me and it was one of my favorites; it was perfect.  They played Omerta, which I was surprised to find myself knowing all the words to.  They played Deadhouse and Strained which were amazing (and better than the album versions imo).  They closed with Leaders; so it’s great as an opening song and as a closing song too…   Anyone trying to tell me that they aren’t a great live band…  well they’re just wrong.   Wrong.

Later that year they came back for a headlining tour and I managed to see 3 shows.  And they were once again amazing, and kind of a beacon through hard times.  This time they bought out a whole bunch of rarities; maybe because it was their third time through on the Dead End Kings tour.  Dissolving Bonds, Ashen, Quiet World, and Unfurl.  It was incredible.  And on top of that, they played 5 songs from Dead End Kings again, but only one, Lethean, that had been played in the spring.  So I’d now heard 9 of the 11 songs on the album.  Ambitions was the highlight of the new Dead End Kings songs for me. 

In conclusion:
Back then, even with everything I’ve described, I don't think I recognized the full extent of what Katatonia would mean for me.  It was a new obsession, and I'd certainly experienced that before.  I *was* certain that it would be a permanent thing like Rush and DT and Arcturus (and Leprous) had been rather than one that fades, like other bands have done.  But I wasn’t ready, and wouldn’t be for a long time, to say that anyone other than Rush and Dream Theater were my favorite bands.  I didn’t know that Katatonia would come to be my first listening choice whenever I needed something.  I didn’t know that the strong emotions I felt when listening to their albums would never fade, but would even grow.  But that did happen.  And it isn’t only with Dead End Kings.  Dead End Kings is probably always going to be my favorite, because it opened the whole Katatonia world to me and also because of personal stuff that it helped to get me through.  But the intensity of emotion is very strong with  Viva Emptiness and The Great Cold Distance, and almost equal to Dead End Kings on everything from Night Is the New Day until now.  Any of those four could be a favorite at any time, and any of them I’ve thought of as “the best” at various times.

[wolfking]

I should have jumped in earlier but I'm a very casual fan of this band.  Not a lot has grabbed me across their catalog except for Night is the New Day.  That is by far their best and most amazing work, easily.  It is an absolutely incredible album with an atmosphere and presence that no other of their albums can come close to.  The songs are incredible and the performances the same.  Phenomenal album.  Their crowning achievement.

[Evermind]

Dead End Kings is probably their best album for me. I've been listening to both Sanctitude and Dethrowned & Uncrowned a lot this last year.

The Racing Heart got to be my favourite Katatonia song.

[twosuitsluke]

I've got way behind with this thread so I'm going to try to catch up quickly, starting with Live Consternation 

[The Realm]

Love Katatonia, love this thread, but sorry I don't love this album. To me, Dead End Kings is a step down from the 3 albums that came before it. I think TAC may have made the comment on The Great Cold Distance (I think) that all the songs sound similar and lacking melody (which I strongly disagree with) but on this album this is kind of how I feel. There are a few songs I really like but overall it is an album I rarely return to.

I think Ambitions and Dead Letters are the best tracks.

[twosuitsluke]

I've moved onto Night is the New Day and this is the best sounding Katatonia album so far. Right from the off this was more up my street and the production is really good. I'll definitely give this one another spin before moving onto the next album.

[LithoJazzoSphere]

*Again I'm going to just post this without having read anything else on the album in the thread, it's interesting to see what points I hit on blind. 

*So this is by far the trickiest Katatonia album for me to articulate exactly what it is that appeals to me about it so much.  On paper to anyone else reading most of it won't really look that different from any other album or song writeup I've done.  Part of it is a lot of personal experiences in the few years after it came out that just can't translate to text.  I think that around the time that NITND came out Katatonia had become a borderline top 10 band for me.  By sometime before the release of DEK, I would say they definitely were a top 10 band, probably borderline top 5.  The cycle of this album and then the rediscovery of it is what pushed them arguably to the top.  I listened to this album a great deal when it came out, though probably not more than any of their previous releases when they had come out. 

*The next year I finally saw them live, on a tour with TesseracT, Cult of Luna, and Intronaut.  I'm probably not nearly as into live music as Lethean, but at least I had the experience, and saw Jonas, Anders, and Daniel in-person. 

*Now the curious thing is that in the fall of '14, I rediscovered this album, and while I don't have the stats to back this up, I suspect I listened to it even more then than I did when it came out two years prior.  It just really resonated with me in that period.  That whole year, but especially the second half, is just a cauldron of some of both my best and my worst memories from a variety of unrelated personal life experiences.  And this album was the soundtrack to that era of my life.  I'm going to have a very tough time when I do my personal top 50 albums thread later this year, because while Opeth's Blackwater Park has nominally held that spot for many years, I'm not sure that it shouldn't be this album. 

*The surprise of the album was easily Silje Wergeland's guest performance on "The One You Are Looking For Is Not Here".  At the time it came out I was a very casual fan of The Gathering, and if I'd heard the album she'd taken over from Anneke on, I definitely wasn't very familiar with it.  Of course now I hold both eras of their output in even higher regard, and also find Octavia Sperati, the band that Silje used to be in, that I wouldn't get into until years later, to be highly underrated.  Katatonia and The Gathering are such a natural pairing, both having doom/death/gothic backgrounds, but filing their edges down significantly over time, while still incorporating some of that melancholy into their more atmospheric rock oeuvre later on. 

*In my initial listening sessions to this album when it came out, "The One You Are Looking For Is Not Here", "The Parting", and "Dead Letters" were easily my most played.  In the 2014 rediscovery period it was "The Racing Heart" and "Hypnone" that really captivated me. 

*This is a very challenging album also to find highlights for Frank Default's keyboard work.  It's just so consistently rich, lush, and excellent, but it's rarely a specific moment or section, just a high level of quality all throughout the album.  That said, the arpeggio at 4:14 in "Undo You" is a favorite moment. 

*The same holds for Daniel's drumming to a lesser extent, it just feels like every note he plays is precisely perfect for what the song needs at any given moment, with accents placed in unusual places that in retrospect seem perfectly logical. 

*And curiously, as many times as I've listened to this album, I've never really bothered to try and work out much of what is going under the hood on a more technical level.  It feels like there are lots of odd time signatures throughout, but they may just be 4/4 with odd groupings and accents.  Regardless, the album is endlessly rhythmically interesting. 

*One of my favorite moments on the album is 1:20 in "Buildings" with the drum fill and guitar harmonic rake. 

*I like how in 2:45 on "The Racing Heart", there are four pickup notes into "sow", differentiating it from first chorus. 

*Interestingly, "Hypnone" sounds like a more complex version of the intro from "One Year From Now" on VE, and 4:38 in "Undo You" has a similar half-diminished arpeggio to it. 

*Curiously, "The Racing Heart" is one of the more straightforward songs in terms of rhythm that they've done, but it has the perfect melody, another great example of how Jonas milks so much out of so little. 

*In terms of some more specific highlights for Liljekvist, "The Parting" brings back the 6/8 offbeat open hat throughout, which moves to the ride in some sections, and then I enjoy how he uses that feel to turn the section into double-time at 3:45.  The tom pattern in verse one of "Hypnone" is nice.  1:13 in "Buildings" is a tasty and short ride bell fill.  I love how he comes in at 0:33 on "Leech", what an entrance.  At 2:04 in "Lethean", I like the short fill with the two splashes and China.  2:50 in it is a fun flashier fill.  "Dead Letters" at 2:46 has another great and rhythmically varied fill. 

*This album really runs with the lower and more moderate-gain melodic leads that NITND made more use of.  3:14 and 3:45 in "The Parting" might be my favorite.  2:55 is "Hypnone" has another.  1:48 in "Ambitions" has a slightly more saturated one, and I like how the held ending note of it turns into a harmonic.  0:52 in "Leech" is similar.  I believe Anders was using a Fernandes Sustainer guitar for some of these parts.  "Undo You" has a couple at 1:30 and 3:28, but they're too low in the mix.  1:42 in "Second" has yet another, with a slightly different timbre this time.  There is more textural variety here than in the NITND. 

*3:43 in "Undo You" is like a tease into another signature Nystrom lick, but stops before it can complete it.  2:17 in "Leech" has a cool effect with guitar harmonics, tremolo, and a bandpass filter, that kind of mimics a busy dial tone. 

*The solo in "Lethean" threw me for a loop the first time I heard it.  I was not used to shredding in Katatonia, having just gotten used to Opeth suddenly having far more virtuosic parts once Akesson joined them a few years prior.  "Dead Letters" has another interesting solo, which would be easy to confuse with a keyboard. 

*"Dead Letters" has probably my favorite riff of the album - definitely kind of Tool-ish, with alternating muted hammer-ons, opening them up, and some flurries of notes to break them up in-between.  3:05 in "First Prayer" is another fun one, where a fairly simple riff is played slightly differently each time, subtly changing the feel with muting and opening different combinations of notes. 

*"The Act of Darkening" brings back some percussion, and is a very unique song in their discography, with a bit more Opeth flavor again, but still very Katatonia. 

*Overall, I would say that compared to NITND this is a more tiered album.  The top half-dozen songs or so are stronger favorites of Katatonia's for me than all but just a handful of other tracks spread across the entire rest of their discography.  But then even my least favorite tracks on it are preferred to the lowest few tracks on NITND.  NITND suffers to me in retrospective from having 80% of the album be excellent, but with none of them especially standing out.   

Favorite Songs:  "The Parting", "The Racing Heart", "Dead Letters", "Hypnone", "The One You Are Looking For Is Not Here", and then all the rest. 

*For some reason I haven't listened to Dethroned & Uncrowned that much.  It just misses so much of what I like about the full album, particularly Daniel's playing.  But my favorite reworkings on it are "The On You Are Looking For Is Not Here" and "Hypnone". 

[nick_z]

Great write-ups as usual, Lethean and Litho.

Didn't have much time to properly sit down and revisit the album...hope to be able to do it over the next few days...

Of course, Friday is the day, so...

[billboy73]

Following up a string of 3 perfect/near perfect albums, Dead End Kings is a solid release in it's own right.  I just can't put it up there with the last 3.  Atmosphere is the name of the game on this album, more so than the all out darkness that pervades NITND.  Lots of clean, arpeggiated guitars fill out sections of this album, and there are quite a few beautiful melodies on this one.  There are plenty of electronics and synths/strings here as well, but they don't feel as up front as what is on much of NITND.  I think that contributes to the more atmospheric feel to this record. 

The highs on this record are really high, but the middle drags just a bit for me.  The first 4 tracks are all incredible.  The Parting is another great opener, and I like that they opened with something a little more atmospheric to differentiate this album.  The One You are Looking For has some beautiful melodies and vocals with the rhythmic guitar driving underneath it all.  Also, shoutout to Daniel on his swansong with the band!  He really did a great job on this album.  The Racing Heart is another amazing track, and I love the murky fadeout to end that song.  Undo You is the grower for me.  I didn't think much of this track at first, but it really grew to be one of my favorites here.  Lethean is such an amazing track, probably just behind Saw You Drown for my favorite Katatonia song.  The album closes out with 2 more awesome tracks, with Dead Letters' instrumental section being another highlight.

I did mention the middle drags a little bit for me.  Buildings might be the heaviest track here, but it has never really clicked for me.  Leech and Ambitions are decent enough, but they aren't on the same pedestal as the rest of the album.  We all keep saying that they are a great B-sides band, and the 2 here, Second and The Act of Darkening, might be 2 of their best.  The Act of Darkening kinda has a Trespass era Genesis pastoral feel to it, quite a unique track.  Reading about what Anders said about Second was interesting.  I would have it on the album proper.

I really need to sit down and think about my top 15 or 20 Katatonia tracks.  I think quite a few from DEK would make it.  Like I said, the highs on this album are really high.  Maybe I'll put out a top 20 along with my full album ranking at the end of this.  Maybe we all could...

[LithoJazzoSphere]

I really need to sit down and think about my top 15 or 20 Katatonia tracks.  I think quite a few from DEK would make it.  Like I said, the highs on this album are really high.  Maybe I'll put out a top 20 along with my full album ranking at the end of this.  Maybe we all could...

Haha, I discussed this with Lethean over PM a month or so ago.  I tossed out the idea of the possibility of us running a top 50 Katatonia song countdown, and figured we'd bring it up at some point to gauge the level of interest in it.  So that's at least three people who would up for it.  If we can get a few more to tentatively commit to it it should be worth doing sometime after this thread wraps up.  By then hopefully we've been able to somewhat absorb the new album as well (coming out tomorrow!)

I'm happy to see that while maybe not universal, DEK seems to have more appreciation here than it does at a lot of places. 

[Evermind]

I'd be in for a Top 25 (would've also been in for Top 25 Porcupine Tree). In both cases, I don't love the band in question enough so Top 50 is a bit much for me.

[LithoJazzoSphere]

I haven't looked into those top 50 countdown threads to see the details of how they work yet, but I would think it would still work if people sent in varying amounts.  If you can only do a top 10 or 25, I would imagine that's fine.  Lethean and I and whoever else can go gray trying to accurately rank a whole 50.  Katatonia has enough material for a top 150, actually, but that would be insanity. 

[Lethean]

25 would definitely not be enough.

[LithoJazzoSphere]

"Nephilim"...2:53 in it I believe is the first usage of vocalise in Katatonia's catalog rather than normal lyrics.

Just had a mild epiphany last night, and I'm going to correct roulette-addled past me.  I'm not sure if it's the first either, but "Omerta" precedes it for such a part. 

[billboy73]

Figured I'd throw some thoughts out on the other 2 releases from this era:

Dethroned & Uncrowned - It's good for what it is, and most of the reworkings are pretty interesting.  I can throw it on when my wife is around too, as she can tolerate this one.  I don't find myself reaching for it all that often though.

Sanctitude - I am glad they did this acoustic tour and released this show as a live album.  It was an interesting time for the band with the lineup changes.  Pretty cool that they got Bruce Soord to guest on this, and he brings a good bit to this show.  He and Anders sound great with the BGVs.  I love that they pulled out a couple of never before played tracks in Gone and Day.  Day in particular is the highlight of the show for me.  They also pulled out some solid lesser played tracks too.  I can think of a few songs I would have liked to see on this tour, but overall the setlist they came up with is solid.

[Lethean]

Since Katatonia has a new album that just came out, I'm going to take a little longer than usual to do the next writeup.  One because I haven't felt like doing a writeup while listening to a brand new album, and I imagine other fans want to take their time with the new album as well.  So this will give TAC and Luke and anyone else who might be lurking more time to catch up.

[Lethean]

Dead End Kings is probably their best album for me. I've been listening to both Sanctitude and Dethrowned & Uncrowned a lot this last year.

The Racing Heart got to be my favourite Katatonia song.

Welcome to the Dead End Kings club with Litho and I.   The Racing Heart is one of my very favorites as well.

[PixelDream]

Since this is an active thread, does this act as the general Katatonia thread as well?

I just want to come here and say I really, really enjoy the new record. I've been listening to the band since The Great Cold Distance and to be quite honest I always find 3-4 tracks to like and then the rest just blurs together for me.

This album is the first time where I enjoy listening from front to back. Getting into this album has finally enabled me to delve into an album like The Fall of Hearts, which previously sounded samey to my ears.

[nick_z]

Dead End Kings was, for me, another big "grower"...

2012 was a bit of a weird year for me - I was working abroad for about half of it, then came back to the US, we moved and then were busy with finding a new job and such  Turns out I wasn't listening to a ton of music. I remember buying this because, well, it was Katatonia...and then didn't pay a whole lot of attention to it. I felt the band was going more and more in a direction that wasn't as immediately appealing, and I didn't "invest" much time in the album.

I think it was a couple of years before I started to properly appreciate it. In a similar way to Night is the New Day, this is a record with such layered and sophisticated songwriting/sound. I'm saying this in the best possible way, not as in the band is now "snobby" and too good for metalheads  But, with some exceptions, that also means the melodies, once again, take their time to fully reveal themselves. The Parting is one example - for the longest time, it sounded to me like it was just kinda "there". Now I really like it. I still think it's somewhat of an unusual opener, but it works. The change in pace towards the end, as noted by Litho, is perfect.

But then this album also hosts The Racing Heart and Lethean, two of my favorite Katatonia songs. Fantastic stuff. I know we discussed it before, but when they opened with Lethean for their "lockdown" streamed live show, it was an incredible feeling. It was such a weird time, obviously, and watching that show live, the way it was shot, truly made you feel you were in the room with them.

The first 4-song run is so good...then Buildings is perhaps the song that sticks with me the least. Leech, Ambitions and Undo You were other examples of sneaky growers. And the First Prayer/Dead Letters combo is a great way to close the album.

Anyway, these days I think I'd rank this more or less at the same level as NITND...with this recent revisit probably slightly above it.

[nick_z]

Since this is an active thread, does this act as the general Katatonia thread as well?

I just want to come here and say I really, really enjoy the new record. I've been listening to the band since The Great Cold Distance and to be quite honest I always find 3-4 tracks to like and then the rest just blurs together for me.

This album is the first time where I enjoy listening from front to back. Getting into this album has finally enabled me to delve into an album like The Fall of Hearts, which previously sounded samey to my ears.

The general Katatonia thread is here, and relatively active, if you'd like to post your thoughts 
https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=5780.770

Would love to hear more comments on Sky Void of Stars!

[LithoJazzoSphere]

Since Katatonia has a new album that just came out, I'm going to take a little longer than usual to do the next writeup.  One because I haven't felt like doing a writeup while listening to a brand new album, and I imagine other fans want to take their time with the new album as well.  So this will give TAC and Luke and anyone else who might be lurking more time to catch up.

Or who needed a break from typing, like me. 

[LithoJazzoSphere]

Dead End Kings is probably their best album for me...The Racing Heart got to be my favourite Katatonia song.

Welcome to the Dead End Kings club with Litho and I.   The Racing Heart is one of my very favorites as well.

If we go through a top 50 thread for them later it'll be interesting to see where it ranks.  "The Racing Heart" is probably top 10 for me.  Top 5?  Maybe, I'll have to think about it more.  But just the odds that we'd have three people on this forum that have DEK as our favorite album of theirs is probably pretty astronomical.  And curiously enough, you're both in the top 6 of my roulette at the moment.  Don't let me down. 

[Lethean]

I feel let down by Leprous not winning the last round.

[Lethean]

OK, so I took a really long break from this.  In my defense, it was partly to give time for Litho's roulette which I didn't realize would last quite this long.   But also I got busy and wasn't around here much for a while.  I'm going to try to do the next album this weekend if I can, and if not it'll be shortly thereafter.

In the meantime, TAC, you never commented on Dead End Kings so you should give it another listen - you've got one of the songs in your roulette - and make some comments.

Same with anyone else who'd still like to participate.

Also, for those in Europe (or those who just like to travel), Katatonia is doing Dead End Kings in it's entirety in Manchester this year, for a delayed 10 year anniversary.