Katatonia
Live Consternation

THE REVIEW

It is late at night and you've just had a crappy evening, you've seen the girl you like passionately making out with a club-going pretty boy whose nasal septum you'd gladly break... Just as you're preparing for a peaceful chat, you take a good look at your target and realize he is twice your size and, as if that wasn't enough, seems to enjoy showing off a cheerful padlock from his belt...

Another important step in this magnificent evening is when, just as you leave the club, you see your dear cousin against the wall in the company of four guys (probably friends of the one who mocked you), who seem eager to talk about everything and nothing... Yeah, probably, the only suspicious factor is that to talk they use a cute switchblade... You jump into the fray and while shouting to your cousin "Get out of here or this will end badly!" you try to disguise yourself and decide to run for it yourself... They chase you and you're running away from the bar area... You're now running alongside the road and, exhausted, you throw yourself with your cousin into the field next to the road, you've shaken them off, but now you have to walk two kilometers because you left the scooter at the club and it's not wise to go back...

...So you find yourself lying on the bed without a muscle with the slightest bit of sensitivity, music might help you... But I'm a strange type... I don't feel like lifting my mood squashed by a car, I want to regain energy, a frightening energy, an energy that will allow me to go to the girl, screw her, and get caught by the pretty boy whom I'll beat up without counting to ten... Here you need strong stuff, Katatonia suits me and what is better than "Live Consternation"?

Music without frills, dark lyrics, and a voice that moves me to death...

A somewhat classic introduction persuades the mind and makes you reflect on what just happened, then the riffs of "Leaders" sweep away those thoughts, Jonas Renske sings low notes, apparently relaxed, but at the same time oozing anger... "Wealth" reaches straight into my veins, with that vague psychedelic flavor it makes you understand that the anger will come out later, even if it's like holding back a raging beast... The same goes for the exceptional "Soil's Song", in its chorus it feels like falling into a bottomless tunnel, the following "Had to (Leave)" finds strength in the wall of guitars and the moment of truth draws ever closer. "Cold Ways" is unsettling and now it's time for reckoning... Those little fascists have to pay, for all the punches they've thrown at me, for stealing the girl and leaving me stranded on the road... But will I be ready? I have my doubts listening to "Right into the Bliss", with that melodic heaviness and the singer's mysterious voice... "Ghost of the Sun" makes me think of all the times in my short existence I've been treated badly, and the band playing seems like they've seen the ghost of the sun more than once... "Criminals" is, in my opinion, a bit of a flaw in this live and goes fairly unnoticed. "Deliberation" instills grit and energy, however pacified by Jonas's always infallible warm voice... To close in the same way (that is with grit and determination) the concert there are "July" and "Evidence".

The concert is over... Now I have the strength to do anything... From carrying forward my ideals to reflecting on ideas... But first I have to give those guys a piece of my mind because since they have a swastika tattoo they think they're superior to others...

This album gives the strength to face everything and in my opinion, it's a very important type of emotion... At least for me.