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Rating: Remember how we left the Swedish band Katatonia three years ago? With a very precise memory: the huge guitars, the occasionally tight rhythms, the increasingly "Tool-like" influences, Jonas' voice in better shape than ever. So, what should we expect from the follow-up to "The Great Cold Distance"?
The grand introduction is entrusted to the already anticipated “Forsaker,” which deceives us, making us believe for a moment that this new work continues the path taken with the previous one... But if you expect to find the same Katatonia from the last albums, you might be disappointed at the first listens! The second track, however, has the ungrateful (but very successful) task of subtly introducing us to what awaits, mixing the two souls of the album, the heavy riffing one and the much softer and "doom" (in the "Katatonia-esque" sense) one: this balance makes “The Longest Year” one of the best tracks of the entire work (and the chorus is one of the most moving ever conceived by the band!). From here on, the album unfolds gently, dragging us into ethereal atmospheres like never before, achieved also thanks to an abundant but skillful use of keyboards, sometimes perhaps too prominent compared to the guitars, of a bass with a "transformative" sound. Sacrificing heaviness in favor of a new intention, now more than ever indebted to bands like Opeth and Porcupine Tree (a perfect example being “Idle Blood”) and once again Tool. And perhaps condemning the album to its only but important flaw, an excessive repetitiveness that a few more dynamic and fast pieces scattered here and there would have helped to avoid. But the unease of “The Promise Of Deceit,” the distressing cadence of “Nephilim” will end up entering your heart ("digging," I would dare say), making you eventually forget the flaws and finally stop regretting "The Great Cold Distance." The songwriting of all the tracks is indeed profoundly mature, the attention to detail is meticulous, the constant research and experimentation with sounds always spot on, Jonas' voice warmer and more versatile than ever.
Finally, reach the wonderful conclusion of the album to fall in love with it definitively: “Day And Then The Shade” momentarily weighs down and enlivens the balance, only to make room for the poetic “Departer,” which, thanks to the vibrant guest vocals of Krister Linder, softly whispers us a “goodbye”...
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Forsaker (04:04)
Rage from a distant
The name unfamiliar
Spikes reach the heart
Time set for rewind
The dark will rise
Abandon your freedom
Give up the right to find your true self
Forsake your own reasons
Forsaker, forsaker
Hand of a leader
Bleached by snowfall
Opposition is drugged
The great end is sweeping in
The dark will rise
Abandon your freedom
Give up the right to find your true self
Forsake your own reasons
Forsaker, forsaker, forsaker
02 The Longest Year (04:37)
In the nights of old I always wished
In the longest year that had me down
And I would freeze if you ever asked me
That was my way
Confront the guilt and try to overcome
Do not go away, I'm not there yet
Confront the guilt and try to overcome
Do not go away, I'm not there yet
I can see fire when I fall behind
When I give up my thoughts redefined
How cold is the flame of our uncompromising future?
How cold is the sun?
The city lights fading still
The coming sky so white
And I'm the dark of this our new day
This is my way
Find the one
This weight will hold me down
How cold is the sun?
I can see fire when I fall behind
When I give up my thoughts redefined
How cold is the flame of our uncompromising future?
How cold is the sun?
03 Idle Blood (04:21)
You there, the bringer of my despair
You are stagnation of hope and will
Oh, you personify loss and remorse
And you hide until my fear reappear
The love for life once bright
A burning fuse the only flame I have
Fate's spiral down this curve
The seed's growing my misery
These wounds kill time
My struggle sublime
Idle the blood, black state of mind
All dreams left behind
You claim to be my long, absent friend
You are the cancer that just moved in
You come with the dark night of the soul
But I'm turning my back on you, you know I do
The love for life once bright
A burning fuse, the only flame I have
Fate's spiral down this curve
The seed's growing my misery
These wounds kill time
My struggle sublime
Idle the blood, black state of mind
All dreams left behind
Idle the blood
The black state of mind
All my dreams left behind
Idle the blood
Ooh, the black state of mind
All my dreams left behind
04 Onward Into Battle (03:49)
In the still eclipse
Every light is a heartbeat
In the spring where I watch
The sudden change
I find this so hard
Onward into battle
Time is growing so dark around me
I, shallow one, burn us out
Day by idle day
Days at the sea
My words are incomplete
In the blind spot where I saw you
On the fourth at night
I find this so hard
Onward into battle
Time is growing so dark around me
I, shallow one, burn us out
Day by idle day
05 Liberation (04:16)
Sold are the eyes I have
And cold is the wait for nothing
In dark I write my name in a long line
How is it possible for you to try?
It's coming true
I've changed my name but I will pass it on to you
Journey, no present thoughts
Coming day, darkest will
It's coming true
I've changed my name but I will pass it on to you
Our thoughts entwine
You speak and I hear other words behind
I wave from the edge of the pier
And fade into dreams of sleepers
Marked, I have had this stain for a long time
We called on the bird long before
It's coming true
I've changed my name but I will pass it on to you
Our thoughts entwine
You speak and I hear other words behind
06 The Promise of Deceit (04:15)
Evening
Coming through the crowd
I hold my head high
Straining
Out here
Dissonance surrounds
I hold my head high
I see the wings behind your back
Burned all the maps to reach you
Watching distant lands
I saw danger
Then I felt the pressure
Downfall
This is our time
The setting sun over
All I ever had
So when did you come to think
That you would tell me that I have no one?
When do you think that you
Will give back the things that you owe me?
Burned all the maps to reach you
Watching distant lands
I saw danger, then I felt the pressure
(weak)
The setting sun over
All I ever had
So when did you come to think
That you would tell me that I have no one?
When do you think that you
Will give back the things that you owe me?
So when did you come to think
That you would tell me that I have no one?
When do you think that you
Will give back the things that you owe me?
07 Nephilim (04:25)
Loving mother
He has come
To take your son
Listen how he strides the earth
When only animals are awake
When the shattering of ideals begin
God of ruin will come to you
Loving mother
He has come
To take your son
Loving mother
He has come
To take your son
Fallen from the faded sky
Nephilim comes, foul air
And when morals will decline
God of ruin will come to you
Loving mother
He has come
To take your son
Loving mother
He has come
To take your son
08 New Night (04:25)
Pledge
I've forgotten this time
I am so uncertain
That my heart will go on
Oh, my beloved one
If you were here you'd find
That I'm not feeling well
That I will have to go on
Though summer unwinds now
I have no reason to follow
I have only you
My sun is pale
My heart's old
Why so quiet this new night
There's a white cloud
Under my eyelid
Oh, my beloved one
There is swirling dark
Shrouding my freedom
Cold is the undertow
Hold
My hand
I'm in the waiting line
Mute I stand, barren ground
Though summer unwinds now
I have no reason to follow
I have only you
My sun is pale
My heart's old
09 Inheritance (04:28)
Our inconvenient burden
It could be lifted off of us
If we gave up to finally let go of the free
Will that we were given
Our graves above the timberline
Our names chalked
Treasure or wealth no longer found
The unforgiving void
The forge in which our values burn
The resting leech our thinning minds
In my abstinence I turn to nothing
Our graves above the timberline
Our names chalked
Treasure or wealth no longer found
Let them inherit this fire now
Lest they will forget that we were ever here
Let them inherit this fire now
Lest they will forget that we were ever here
12 Departer (05:22)
The blinding white so far behind I am
And running over idle ground
This evening I kept my word, did you?
I'm turning around wait for your sound
So far according to who
Departer
The journey of our lives
I'm so slow compared to you
Departer
It's the month of July
Brother in your eyes I was the stronger
So how am I to cover you now
Without shadowing your path
This time I watch from the sidelines
Your ghost in the limelight
Face your fears and pierce the night
I'm so close if only you knew
Defender
The story of our lives
I'm so rash compared to you
Surrender it's the path of our lives
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Other reviews
By Hell
This album is, to put it bluntly, extremely boring, a work that largely offers a string of tracks that are neither fish nor fowl and have neither head nor tail.
Everything drags on without much dynamism between inconsistent/non-existent 'heavy' passages and lengthy more relaxed and autumnal moments that... end up boring holes within tracks.
By ElectricOne
Once you get in sync and slow down your heartbeat to better synchronize with the mood of the album, a new facet of Katatonia’s multifaceted personality opens up: and it is truly splendidly dramatic and touching.
Ultimately, a controversial but ultimately pleasant album, after all the above-mentioned listening preparation preambles, which does not hit the big target but opens new scenarios for the Swedish combo.
By Taurus
"Night is the new day" is a softer record compared to the previous one, painting desolate and decadent environments veiled by melancholy and bewilderment.
Their music manages to be very evocative when listened to in the right conditions, revealing new details with each listen.
By Hellring
"Dead end kings turns out to be, all in all, the musically flattest and 'weakest' CD from the Swedes."
"'Lethean,' in the writer's opinion the only true highlight of the record, could very well have appeared in 'The Great Cold Distance.'"
