Katatonia
Night Is The New Day

THE REVIEW

Among the most notable metal releases of 2009, a prominent spot was certainly held by the return of Katatonia, three years after the previous "Great Cold Distance."

It's not worth delving too deeply into lengthy biographies about the band, suffice it to say that they are one of the leading bands of the Scandinavian scene in terms of gothic metal and beyond.

"Night is the new day," much like what happened with their colleagues Opeth, presents a greater inclination towards atmosphere and more relaxing moments, without striving at all costs for those intense electric sections that found more space in songs like "Ghost of the sun."

However, the opener "Forsaker", with its glacial sections and liquid guitars that cradle the listener along with heavy distortions, represents a bridge connecting with the previous TGCD, but it might be misleading as it is not representative of the work as a whole.

More fitting in this sense is the following "Longest year" in which the band's metamorphosis is already clear, as they engage with synths and electronics, both extensively used in many parts of the album along with keyboards and strings. However, the surprise of the album is called "Idle blood," a soft airy ballad that develops on a bed of acoustic guitars with a mood closer to Opeth than to Katatonia itself.

Excluding "Departer," if it’s true that on one side the album presents changing and layered structures yet adherent to the song form, it is not exactly the most immediate, and it is after several listens that excellent pieces like the dreamy "New night" dragged by excellent piano embroideries, and the calm "Onward into battle" where elegant bass lines appear midway, gain points.

On the impact force of the opener, we find "The day and then the shade" and the equally successful "Liberation" which alternates dark and gloomy sections with other impetuous and full ones including almost nu-metal riffing in its gait.

But the insights offered by the album are many, as demonstrated by the industrial metal nuances of "Promise of deceit" or the obsessive slowness of doom origin of "Nephilim," though decidedly redundant in its unfolding.

To demonstrate how "Night is the new day" is a softer record compared to the previous one, we find at the end two rather ambitious tracks "Inheritance" and "Departer" considering the almost total absence of guitars.

If Katatonia's goal was to paint desolate and decadent environments and scenarios veiled by a faint sense of melancholy and bewilderment, it must be said that the goal has been fully achieved. Their music manages to be very evocative when listened to in the right conditions.

It is a work that grows with each listen, always revealing new details, although some may miss the impact and greater electric dynamism of "The Great Cold Distance," we are faced with an album that will not easily tire and will keep us company for quite some time during this cold winter.

A perfect soundtrack for this time of the year.