Katatonia
Dance Of December Souls

THE REVIEW

"Ten strings of darkness on a violin sad. Flowing tunes on autumn funeral, ashes spread in the northern storm. I can fly"

The average age of the members of Katatonia at the release of "Dance Of December Souls" (1993) was about 18/19 years old, no more. It should be noted that in their youth our common friends did not devote themselves to the calm and melodic Dark Rock of recent times but moved in decidedly heavier territories.

The genre offered is a Doom Metal heavily influenced by Black and partly by Death. I will make it clear from the outset that in my opinion "Dance Of December Souls" is the heaviest album by Katatonia. If the following "Brave Murder Day", their masterpiece, was full of sad and catatonic atmospheres, here it is the anger that takes over. Characteristics that become clear right from the start. After the spectral intro "Seven Dreaming Souls", it starts with one of the best chapters of this record, which is "Gateways Of Bereavement". The riffs played at a considerable slowness are perfectly inserted into the composition as a whole and make the track very heavy in its progression. The voice inserts itself into these passages with its lacerating timbre, and if Renske's voice is certainly very raw here, it must be said that he compensates for everything with great expressiveness.

"In Silence Enshrined" does not change the coordinates of the album; the track has faster rhythms, although it never deviates from that sense of desperate anger. Anger that completely spills out with "Without God", full of violent riffs and extremely aggressive vocals, maintaining medium-low speeds. The album reaches its peak when anger atmospherically gives way to despair. The sixth, marvelous track "Velvet Thorns (of Drynwhyl)" after a brief initial fast part, unfurls into total darkness for about a quarter of an hour between enticing and very sad melodies, disturbing silences, culminating in a series of nearly imperceptibly whispered words. The last real song is another masterpiece of notable interest. The very long "Tomb Of Insomnia" is indeed decidedly the darkest and most desperate track on the album. Typically Doom/Death riffs intersect with acoustic interludes, all led by Renske's growl/scream, perhaps at his peak as a singer here. A track, therefore, not to be missed that fully encapsulates the essence of the album, which is closed by the brief outro "Dancing December".

"Dance Of December Souls" is an album that is basically harsh and raw but full of brilliant ideas that would be expanded and perfected in the subsequent masterpiece "Brave Murder Day". Nevertheless, listening remains an obligation for lovers of the genre because it contains some of the most beautiful tracks Doom has ever offered, and ultimately for the undeniable emotion one perceives among the grooves of these tracks.