Website: Katatonia
The Inside Pulse:
Katatonia’s signature atmospheric, dark brand of symphonic metal is once again embodied fully with their latest, The Great Cold Distance. While the fans of this Swedish band have come to expect this sound from them, this latest effort moves farther away from the sounds of traditional metal and more into gothic realms.
Very noteable with The Great Cold Distance is an improvement in lyrical quality. In releases past, Katatonia has been known to feature some incredibly cringeworthy metaphor. It’s not only nice to see the absence of lines like “too much f*cking emo, it’s false I know,” but the majority has finally stopped sounding like teenagers trying to recreate Sylvia Plath. It’s far from perfect english, but it’s a big leap forward.
Positives: Mood, mood, mood. This has always been a strong point of Katatonia’s, but it’s also noteable that they maintain a vibe throughout the album without becoming tedious. “My Twin” and “Rusted” step out of the mood with extremely crunchy and catchy phrasing, providing a bit of variety and excellent examples of the quality songwriting they are capable of creating, with “In The White” easily the best song they have recorded to date. The Great Cold Distance does show growth and more cohesion from years past; it’s nice to hear them become tighter.
Negatives: Even though they are able to escape becoming too monotonous, The Great Cold Distance does drag at times, and is the same angle as most of their releases to date. The excessive dreariness will keep them in a niche if they don’t reach out and experiment with new and different sounds.
Cross-breed: Clean-vocal My Dying Bride meets non-prog Tool.
Reason To Buy: If you like beautifully sad music, you should be all over Katatonia. Goth fans who don’t reach too far into metal? They’ll win you over with esoteric stylings and a decidedly non-hack approach. Happy smiling people? It’s fair to say one might appreciate the quality of song structure, but if you’re not down with the vibe, you won’t be down with The Great Cold Distance.
