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Rating: Everyone speaks highly of it, everyone praises it, everyone takes it as a model and defines it as the "smart way" to end-of-millennium metal.
For the most part, however, that's nonsense.
Katatonia, as many of you may already know, were among the pioneers of the doom-gothic metal scene (even though they fortunately tended to include very little of the gaudy gothic) and have produced unforgettable records. "Dance Of December Souls" and "Brave Murder Day" represent, in different but still superb ways, the dark pessimism that this genre was able to exude in its best years of existence. Screaming vocals, in their debut, and growl vocals (courtesy of Mike Akerfeldt from Opeth) in the second and official chapter. Music that's hard to forget and music that, in my humble opinion, is far more original than that proposed by their masters Paradise Lost.
Then, as already written in another review, came the change. Gone are the formidable deep voices and some ultra-metal residues. Katatonia decided to explore new sonic universes inspired by the melancholy of Cure, Slowdive, and Radiohead. The results? Excellent. In this regard, I would like to recall the single "Saw Your Drawn" containing the splendid "Quiet World". The album "Discouraged Ones" is also beautiful: a black pearl of melancholy and dark-toned rock of the end of the millennium.
And here we are at "Tonight's Decision". The style doesn't deviate excessively from the previous album but, and here comes the pain, in some tracks one can notice an overly pandering vein, far too catchy and not very personal.
Let's start, just to not consider the glass as "half empty," by listing the most valid tracks. Cute, but little more, are the two opening songs. I'm talking about "For My Demons" and "I Am Nothing". Very similar in structure to the material present in the previous Katatonia chapter. Desperate but not overwhelming songs, endowed with a particular and crepuscular charm. Even more beautiful is "The Punishment" based on acoustic parts and psychedelic wanderings. Acceptable and more than decent is track number eight, titled "Strained", only negative note: a chorus that's way too sweet. But let's get to the peaks of this record, namely the songs that have made "Tonight's Decision" an album sufficiently valid. "A Darkness Coming" is a truly suggestive song, once again delicate vocals and acoustic guitar. Touching as a whole and lovable for that disturbing distorted guitar that is heard towards the end. Distortion that, shortly, is abandoned to return to the dark stillness. "Black Session" is instead morbid and sharp. This song, in fact, represents a sign of real discontinuity within the work: a long, haunting song characterized by a more complex structure.
This concerns the "salvageable" or even appreciable part of the record. A different discourse applies to the weaknesses present here. I'm talking, in detail, about tracks like "In Death, A Song", banal and easily forgettable, but also "Had To Leave" and "Right Into The Bliss". These two tracks, perhaps, were written by Katatonia to win over the favour of the general public, a public fond of "alternative" flavoured pop-rock ditties and little more. "No Good Can Come Of This" follows this line with that semi-muted but ultimately uninspiring chorus. The cover of Jeff Buckley's "Nightmares By The Sea" doesn't shine either. What were the guys trying to prove? That they were keeping up with the times? I write this because, if my memory serves me, by the late '90s, the cult of Buckley Jr. had exceeded all tolerable limits.
The cover art created by Travis Smith is both beautiful and extremely expressive. But, as old as the hills, artwork alone isn't enough to make records great! The rating would be a 2.5 which, with some mercy, I've decided to turn into a 3. Much better, then, are the more aggressive and disenchanted Katatonia of "Viva Emptiness."
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 For My Demons (05:43)
Well I'm here
And summer is gone I hear
So pray for me
As I now leave your town
When did I say this
I will never leave
I can't recall this
Moment in my life
You would never sleep at night
If you knew what I've been through
And this thought is all I have
To trust upon when light is gone
My problem was
That you kept me here too long
And today is when
We'll regret that I came by
When did I say this
I will never leave
I can't recall this
Moment in my life
You would never sleep at night
If you knew what I've been through
And this thought is all I have
To trust upon when light is gone
Life is full of darkness
And murderers come my way
Someday you will join them
And I will let you in
You would never sleep at night
If you knew what I've been through
And this thought is all I have
To trust upon when light is gone
02 I Am Nothing (04:37)
Tonight I'm nothing
It doesn't matter where I've been
Delay of reaction is
The unseen movie of this life
I remember one of my friends
Telling me to go ahead
Water on every side
There's a dead spot in my eye
If I listen close at night
There's something coming my way
Like someone called my name
But I didn't care to look that way
I just fixed my eyes into the crowd
It would have been strange to turn around
If you would tell me that I was someone
Then for a second I would think
Just like I would try to consider
How it would feel to know
I have to get on with this
It's a decision for tonight
Out to look for chances
It is murder of my mind
Once I was someone new
I was chosen for a while
Then with time I am changing
At least that is what they say
If you would tell me that I was someone
Then for a second I would think
Just like I would try to consider
How it would feel to know
What is worth with being here
I pray so often for a change
If you would tell me that I was someone
Then for a second I would think
Just like I would try to consider
How it would feel to know
04 Had To (Leave) (06:03)
So you were with us until the last minute
And then you were gone from here
And I watched and I just figured out
That I will never see you again
I had a choice
You had to leave
Into the night
This was my choice
It's so hard to explain what I meant
When I said that I wanted you dead
But I saw you fuck up and I just can't get back
The feeling I had for you
I had a choice
You had to leave
Into the night
This was my choice
So I put all my strength into my only will
It was the only thing to do
And now I only regret that I cried
'Cause you would never do that for me
I had a choice
You had to leave
Into the night
This was my choice
05 This Punishment (02:46)
Will I be strong
No friends by my side
In a black room
No spirits abide
Who is judge now
When I wait for this
Punishment
When I come in
From where I've been
They raise their voices
On a given signal
06 Right Into the Bliss (05:04)
by a black road
giving a brief smile
something's on the way
forgotten for a while
and you try to speak this
without a voice down by a black road
we try to forget and try to make it through
someday we'll go
further from this right into the bliss
some night we'll try
to leave this place for another
they keep pushing me
so far from every chance
makes it so much harder
for me to carry on
so I try to speak this
without a thought down by a black road
we try to forget and try to make it through
08 Strained (04:14)
end
sometimes a start for others
end
I don't know the word beginning
sometimes fear is power
like when I lost control
this time it has to come to an end
I'd like to try to live my life again
I'd like to see where I was going wrong
09 A Darkness Coming (05:02)
So near
So close
Something bad is seen
But I
Seem to be
The only one that can see
There is a darkness coming
And they
The others
They don't know a thing of what's next
But I'm not here to say
What should be done about this
I just lift my eyes to watch
I saw it coming
Something bad
So near
So close
Something bad is seen
But I
Seem to be
The only one that can see
There is a darkness coming
10 Nightmares by the Sea (04:16)
Beware the bottled thoughts of angry young men
Secret compartments hide all of the skeletons
Little girl wants to make her home with him
In the middle of the shore she wonders
"Don't know what you asked for"
"Don't know what you asked for"
All young lovers know why
Nightmares blind their mind's eyes
Your rube is young and handsome
So new to your bedroom floor
You know damn well where you'll go
I've loved so many times and I've drowned they all
From their coral graves they rise up when darkness falls
With their bones they'll scratch the window
I hear them call
"Don't know what you asked for"
"Don't know what you asked for"
Stay with me under these ways tonight
Be free for once in your life tonight
11 Black Session (09:14)
I sense infliction in the air
It's only me
I'm fucking up old times
It's a remembrance
Oh this
Black session in my mind
Oh the black
I was too weak to fight
Once more I let go
It is a black session
An invitation of sorts
Oh this
Black session in my mind
Oh the black
I keep on living in this my only wish
That life will be good someday
I keep on losing my sleep because of this
Seems so hard just to stay
So if you come by just this last time
I'll be here
And I will talk to you like
If this had never been
Oh this
Black session in my mind
Oh the black
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By dying_sun
This puts you face to face with terror, but not the kind of terror that makes people tremble, the terror of being fragile, replaceable, useless...
There are few albums capable of conveying emotions; this is one of them, this puts you face to face with terror.
