Katatonia
Night Is The New Day

THE REVIEW

Well aware that there are already two reviews on DeB of this latest effort by the Swedish combo led by Jonas Renkse and Anders Nystrom, I am preparing to explain this page.

Katatonia is a band so introspective and emotionally intricate that, in my opinion, it is absolutely plausible for the initial listens of their work to give a sensation of incompleteness and difficulty that discourages the listener from proceeding into their ethereal and intimate gothic atmospheres.

Personally, I was aware of it, but despite this, even after repeated listening sessions, the new "Night is the new Day" initially left me with a feeling that can be summed up in a single word: disappointment.

Why?

Because, even unconsciously, I was expecting the continuation of an evolutionary path that took its foundations from the journey started with "Viva Emptiness" and wonderfully continued with "The Great Cold Distance," therefore, great atmospheres highlighted by a marvelous guitar work, understood as really hard and distorted solutions put at the service of an extremely melancholic yet lively melodic line in rhythm.

"Night is the new Day" dramatically shifts towards a downsizing of the "classically" metal component (in the "katatonic" exception of the term) in favor of a massive introduction of patterns and programming (which objectively modernizes our sound), of spectral keyboards and a groove decidedly more alternative taking cues from Tool (this is quite evident), A Perfect Circle, and Porcupine Tree.

The whole therefore becomes decidedly less accessible than usual, which says a lot: the work unfolds very slowly through the infinite folds of the lyrics and the tormented vocals of the good Renkse, the average speed of the pieces could very well be that of Saint Vitus, but once you get in sync and slow down your heartbeat to better synchronize with the mood of the album in question (and this is not a given for anyone who comes into possession of it), a new facet of Katatonia's multifaceted personality opens up: and it is truly splendidly dramatic and touching.

Perhaps you can't objectively scream masterpiece, but tracks like the already known opener "Forsaken" (the only track that feels the "T.G.C.D." era) the following "The Longest Year" (the refrain is really beautiful), the more intimate "Onward into the Battle" and "The Promise Of Deceit", the harsh sadness of "Liberation" and the poignant "New Night/"Day and then the Shade" certainly justify the purchase of the album.

The downside, alas, lies in the cloyingness of really unsuccessful tracks like "Idle Blood" (pathetic and particularly lackluster, note that this is one of the few songs contained in this CD entirely written by Nystrom, who is generally much more fierce), the inconclusive and ill-conceived "Departer" (which taken in individual parts is quite pleasantly ambient, but it lacks in its choral blend), the pseudo-poetically symphonic mediocrity of "Inheritance" (also without head or tail, just a depressing atmosphere lacking that negative pathos that would truly justify its existence), the absolutely secondary and negligible bonus track "Ashen", and in general a certain tendency to overly dilute the more intense emotional components like particularly effective and well-done refrains and riffs, a choice not always agreeable.

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: let's consider this "Night is the new Day" as a transitional work, like a chrysalis, and let's give credit to our musicians in the hope that they can further fine-tune this new path, hoping they can still delight us with their compositions.

It's a matter of trust.

P.S.: in this regard, the album itself would be worth a 3.5, but out of trust, I will raise the score by half a point.