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Rating: For Katatonia, it's all too easy to elevate "Brave Murder Day" into the pantheon of black, doom, and perhaps even death masterpieces. But a reasoned and in-depth comparison with "Dance of December Souls" loses, albeit by a narrow margin.
"Dance of December Souls" stands as the expressive apex of the Swedish group, undoubtedly due to the absence of the slow and hypnotic atmospheres that made "Brave Murder Day" great, replaced here by masterful, transporting riffing, deep, emotional, almost Black Sabbath-like at certain points.
An album devoid of the rancid and brutal atmospheres that bring the '90s black metal close to the stereotypical Darkthrone sound, instead filled with a highly technical and performative varied rhythmic-melodic cadence that is very well thought out, reminiscent almost of Dissection's "The Somberlain" from this perspective, and with chilling, frightening, "clean", strongly evocative atmospheres.
An album that moves in a territory where the death and doom influences are, in my opinion, rather marginal, but that constructs an "infinite and eternal field, where even God is terrified" [quote from "Tomb of Insomnia"].
Three instrumental or almost instrumental interludes, and five tracks in which despair surfaces through a raw but extremely expressive voice of a certain Jonas Renske: "Seven Dreaming Souls", an imperceptible intro, followed by the masterful "Gateways of Bereavment", penetrating, icy, captivating in its opening design, where it is hard to find a misplaced riff or offbeat, all on a pace not too fast, but that does not descend into prolixity or boredom; similar in progression, but perhaps more stripped down and naive "In Silence Enshrined", which, however, makes a central riff of its solid structure its battle horse, elevating it to a more than good level.
Continue with "Without God", which together with the subsequent "Elohim Meth" is taken from a demo from the previous year (1991), "JHVA ELOHIM METH": the introduction is absolutely indispensable, full and sufficient to build almost the entire value of the piece - introduction resumed and enhanced in its energy, accompanied by brief atmospheric interludes twenty degrees below zero. Noteworthy is the arpeggio that even manages to relieve the tension, making this song another pearl approaching perfection.
Almost unsettling the short "Elohim Meth", which slips through without weighing down or consuming the atmosphere towards the gem that illuminates with absolutely raw light the entire December panorama: "Velvet Thorns (of Drynwhyl)", built on two unsurpassable guitar-lines, of the same consistency as a solid block, real sound channels flowing into a glacier. To be honest, numerous minutes of the track flow into a completely different realm, a very fast pre-falsetto screaming, gliding over approximate and almost random riffing, in the style of the worst Gorgoroth, only to then slip into a couple of absolutely noteworthy bass embellishments. Every single note, every single sound, every single construction of this track undoubtedly reveals it to be the best of the entire Dance. Any doubts dissipated by the last two goosebump-inducing minutes, with the song practically over, where the usual arpeggio peeks through the fog and slips mystically into "Tomb of Insomnia". The latter is a colossal track, constantly oscillating between the most canonical black metal and the vampiric (not in a gothic-ridiculous sense, but in a way that makes it particularly sad and depressive, almost approaching the cursed expression of an eternal and unattainable love torment - specifically vampiric). A song not exceptionally unique, perhaps a bit monolithic in more than one point, but certainly bearing the two most catchy and memorable riffs/arpeggios of the entire record. If the first is almost repetitively filler, the second, playful almost to the point of being foolish, upon close inspection constitutes one of the lights that ignite in the Tomb of Insomnia, rendering it a ride in the night, knowing that there’s no God and no hope. It closes with "Dancing December", a brief whispered instrumental that maintains the guiding lines to the end.
Ultimately, an essential and immeasurable masterpiece. A perfectly balanced, sincere, and enthusiastic expressive peak, repeatedly approached, but never surpassed, by a historical group that is a cornerstone of a hybrid genre, difficult to understand, but, in more than one case, more powerful than ever.
Tracklist and Lyrics
02 Gateways of Bereavement (08:15)
[november 92]
I stand as I cry
Mourning in the Silent rain
Death will light my Burden
Endless is my Sorrow
Gateways so Dark
All these years of Dying
Gone are dreams of Velvet Voices
I am you, we were one
Vast are fields I walk
Where sorrow never dies
The Sky unities with the Blackened Rain
Summon with my Tears
Now descend on WinterWings
My withering Soul.
Let me Die.
Gateways of Bereavement
A Temple of guilt
Falling Deep
Embraced in Grief
My withering soul
Let me Die
Farewell life and all I died for
now my time is over on Earth
Another journey has begun
Alone I died, not praying for mercy
nor praying for Salvation
A lonely Journey in a Darkened Dream
Time has come to spread my Wings
Slow...
Descending from a Silent sky
Death comes to take me away
And from the Gateways you hear me
cry...
...I love you...
03 In Silence Enshrined (06:30)
In silence enshrined through ages
A dying beauty on a journey far
Fading roses enchants the garden
Sleeping, dreaming of my bride
In quiescence faces borders the path
On the shore of no hope I am stranded
Fading roses enchants my grave
Sleeping, dreaming of my bride
Lift my remains from water violent
Unite the body with a serene sky
Enlight my wounds with healing tongue
The portrait is kissed in a solemn night
In silence enshrined through ages
A rotten beauty on a journey far
Blackened roses celebrates my death
How I never could reach my bride
Putrid faces engulfs the path
To the shore of no hope, a bridge
Blackened roses in the cradle of sleep
Whispers: "our death is eternal"
In silence I fall through sorrows
A dying lord on eternal journey
Your face is torn and lifeless
And the passage is locked now forever
Tearful my face borders the path
Sleeping, dreaming of my bride
And freezing my soul is praying
"Take me the way, through the night"
04 Without God (06:51)
[april 91]
Human Birds Watch the Sky
Where Dark formations sail
Infecting the area of God
"JHVA ELOHIM METH"
I am God creator of Life
I am God Enchanter of Death
Death - that now marks you
Life - that slowly pass away
Screams of fear, dismembering the wind
Helpless souls drowning in Pain
But storms of dawn...
A dawn without your fucking God
My spirit filled with hate sets free
The force of the Golden Dawn
Without God
Entomb your fear
The spirit is free
Jhva Elohim Meth
Satan laughs
Jhva Elohim Meth
I raise my fist
To the sky
Swear the Ancient oath of Black
The lambs shall bleed
Eternally bleed
Your fucking God is Dead and shall forever be
06 Velvet Thorns (of Drynwhyl) (13:56)
[february 93]
Ten Strings of Darkness on a Violin Sad
I watch the Mountains where the Frost begins
The Northern Storm is Guiding me
To the Forest
Silently the Nightbirds fly
Their last scream my eternal Dirge
Under the Fullmoon a Funeral
In the Forest
Still I walk with open wounds but the Third is now
rising
Through the ashes of a Dying Love a new soul is born
I watch the feathers like Snow in the Winter
The Angels that fell, splendid to rape
Tall are the shadows that dance before me
as they
Shows the way to the Dawn
An Autumn forest that never reach
Condemned to Sorrow
Chasing the Wind / Like a Spirit fly
Through the Autumn trees / Towards the Sky
Hoofs are pounding / In the clouds above
The Chariot of Sorrow / Watch me die
Hear the Violin / So sad and blackened
Like a Breeze / The songs of Drynhwyl
Chasing the wind / Like my spirit die
Dreaming of the Queen / The queen of roses
Now they die, Pure Sorrow flow
My Souls Funeral, Too close to the End
Now they Die, Purest blood pours
Forever Die, but I must...
I must Die
Through the Sky
And the Forest
Follow the Wind, go North my Child
to the purest of Winters
Go to the Forest that never Ends
There you'll find your fate
And to the North I rode, on the coldest of winds
I watched the Mountains where the frost begun
Where no Angels ever dare to tread
Where Death is all mine
At last I found the Throne of Bereavement
Grim and bleak raised to the Sky
The Velvet Thorns of Drynhwyl are mine
and so are death and sadness
See...
My final Sacrfice
In the trees you will hear my voice
ever calling ever falling
Ten Strings of Darkness on a Violin Sad
Flowing tunes on Autumn Funeral
Ashes spread in the Northern Storm
07 Tomb of Insomnia (13:09)
Falling, Crying, Sleeping, through the air
with the evil, shadows, moving towards the sky!
Tomb spirits marching in the fields of eternal....life
crying like a God....a terrified...God!!
Falling, crying, sleeping in the air
with the evil, shadows, moving towards the sky!
[chorus riff]
Behold the ancient sky, clouds of lie
Souls can't sleep, until the throne's mastering..again!
Tomb of insomnia.........can't sleep
[guitar solo]
Uh!
Cry!! Cry!! Ahh!! Cry!!
Falling, crying, sleeping the land is weak
With the evil shadows, moving towards the sky!
Tomb spirits marching, in the fields of eternity
Laughing, rotting, tainted...this sorrow gone...
[whispering words]
to cry...of an ancient.??.into the sky
??
[guitar solo]
Behold the ancient sky, clouds are black
Souls can't sleep, or nor can I..........kill me! uh!
yaahh!!
[beggining riffs with organ]
uh!
yaahh!!
yaahh!!
[guitar riffs begin]
Now they fall, behold the angels
Their withering souls, in blood
They can't fly
And in confusing anger, they fall so low
Now I can't sleep
Purest sorrow, embrace my soul
I can't sleep
Ahh!
08 Dancing December (02:18)
Dancing...
Dancing...
Dancing...
Dancing...
Dancing...
Dancing...
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Other reviews
By Norvheim
"Dance Of December Souls is the heaviest album by Katatonia."
"The sixth, marvelous track 'Velvet Thorns (of Drynwhyl)' unfurls into total darkness with enticing and sad melodies."
