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Rating:
Look beyond.
Beyond the surface of worlds colored with fake wellness, beyond the veil of hypocrisy of the plastic man, made of plastic needs, to realize how gray is the lost color of certain existence, how empty is the inexhaustible sense of actions-experiences-memories without a past that comforts, that restores.
Finally closure.
Tormented expression through symbols, words of rock and fragile earth in sounds of lucid harmony, always sought, always desired.
This is catatonic hermeticism, the invisible tool of those who have preferred to contemplate sincerely and wistfully their own inner universe, a reflection of multiple external realities, behind the screens of a dark and complex Rock/Metal, in the attempt to explore the abyss of senses and certainties, the desolate awareness of the impossibility of being fully serene, fully true.
So there's nothing left but to contemplate the void, not as nothingness but as the absence of emotion and perception of life, a raw and insurmountable wall of protection against the disillusionment of everyday life.
In the world of Katatonia, a Swedish group considered pioneers of once extreme sounds related to the Gothic-Doom-Death Metal style, all that "woe of living" that certain symbolist-decadent poetry has represented with exact grandeur materializes, and which certain chanters of hermetic delirium and irreparable decay, like Tool and The Cure, have brought to complete essence, a torrent of sensations here relived and sensitized within the bounds of an indissoluble and ingenious text-music embrace.
There are no geometric shapes that can define and contain the void of existence, so the entire album is a dark and mysterious journey, through the impervious roads of Rock and Metal, where acoustic, electric, and electronic sounds blend and mix, following an unpredictable yet sensible logic, where loss is tangible, where pain becomes flesh, but never explicitly.
Everything is symbol, everything is a mediation of color, a controlled gray explosion in the cold of darkness.
Often melodic vocal lines seem to enchant the listener like a lullaby, while the guitars, now hard now gentle, paint frescoes of rare beauty, in an almost mystical cloak of surreal atmospheres, always changing, always different, amidst the disorienting highs and lows of a perfect and evocative bass and drums.
Someone has defined this Progressive attitude, but here there is no technical exercise for its own sake, here all technique serves the senses, thoughtful interpretation serves the ideas.
Describing individual songs, cutting like a mosaic the complete and structured painting of this work, would be a crime that too many have already perpetrated.
Viva Emptiness is a journey into true and sincere darkness.
A journey that feeds on senses, not simple and direct emotions, which is why it will be challenging for those who feed on sweetened "gothicity" and pretentious and redundant "alternative".
A difficult journey.
Like life.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Ghost of the Sun (04:11)
The thin darkness here
Not strong enough to make you appear
(Strong enough to make you appear)
I once changed my style
They said hello I said goodbye
(They said hello I said goodbye)
I once played a role
I was out there marketing my soul
City of glass that I live in
Coldness from my brothers skin
I trusted you, you lied
It's all I hear a fucking lie
Don't give a shit it's over now
It's all I know you broke the vow
I trusted you, you lied
It's all I hear a fucking lie
Don't give a shit it's over now
It's all I know you broke the vow
The thin darkness here
Not strong enough to make you appear
(Strong enough to make you appear)
I once changed my style
They said hello I said goodbye
(They said hello I said goodbye)
Truth is I have seen it come
Seen the ghost of the sun
Can't have it undone
Truth is I have seen it come
Seen the ghost of the sun
Can't have it undone
In time we all call out for relief
See two lovers meet
Pass you on the street
I trusted you, you lied
It's all I hear a fucking lie
Don't give a shit it's over now
It's all I know you broke the vow
I trusted you, you lied
It's all I hear a fucking lie
Don't give a shit it's over now
It's all I know you broke the vow
The City of glass that I live in
Coldness from my brothers skin
The City of glass that I live in
Coldness from my brothers skin
02 Sleeper (04:12)
O my your fever's high
I lay my hands upon you
O my haven't you heard
The truth is untrue
Now I'm breathing
I could not breathe until you did
I'm one second after you
Just a second after you
Someone inside your room
Who is it there behind you
What does he want from you
Sleeper, what did you see
I close the window to the street
Parents died and left their child
Unattented for a while
Now I'm breathing
I could not breathe until you did
I'm one second after you
Just a second after you
Someone inside your room
Who is it there behind you
What does he want from you
Sleeper's song will you listen to me sing
The bird is here I can see the edge of his wing
If you die now how can I then live on
Don't give up you must live on
03 Criminals (03:51)
The way the light hits the road
The way I am unable to protect you
Oh I'm running away
I will never forgive myself
For running away from you
He came back to your house
I didn't take it as a promise
Always thought it was a lie
He went too far the fucker
It's not like I owe him money
This is different
So gather your strength and break free
Or you will surely die
Gather your strength don't follow me
'Cause I will surely die
The way my eyes cannot move
The way I hope to be protected
And for one moment I thought
That I was lost among the lights of houses
He came back to your house
I didn't take it as a promise
Always thought it was a lie
He went too far the fucker
It's not like I owe him money
This is different
So gather your strength and break free
Or you will surely die
Gather your strength don't follow me
'Cause I will surely die
My dreams of violence
See them coming true
He came back to your house
I didn't take it as a promise
Always thought it was a lie
He went too far the fucker
It's not like I owe him money
This is different
So gather your strength and break free
Or you will surely die
Gather your strength don't follow me
'Cause I will surely die
04 A Premonition (03:37)
Stand aside now no one will survice can't tell you how I know
In some time I will change my name and lay low
In the light you can see me walk down by the way
The one who did this to us well he got away
Keep it quiet here I will not tolerate your noise
This is where I listen for
Keep it quiet here I will not tolerate your noise
This is where I listen for the forgiving voice
Keep it quiet here I will not tolerate your noise
This is where I listen for the forgiving voice
It haunts my dreams
It haunts my dreams
It haunts my dreams
It haunts my dreams
Keep it quiet here I will not tolerate your noise
This is where I listen for the forgiving voice
It haunts my dreams
It haunts my dreams
Haunts my dreams
05 Will I Arrive (04:13)
Bypassed the day I can hear them coming
They walk round my door and speak of their coming
My trial awaits got nowhere to run
My only words how soon you have come
And I think about what you told me
When I was about to join in
Defy only if you have a way to resist the lies
Decline only if you have the intention of taking this advice
Who brought me here this place is familiar
Where houses are black under the sun
Strangers pass on streets with strange names
All I can think is how soon they have come
And I think about what you told me
When I was about to join in
Defy only if you have a way to resist the lies
Decline only if you have the intention of taking this advice
Apply only if you're not afraid to see your spirit die
Retreat only if you dare not hear yourself say goodbye
Look at me now they have cut my hair
It's a long way back
They kicked me down and I could not rise
I will never arrive
Defy only if you have a way to resist the lies
Decline only if you have the intention of taking this advice
06 Burn the Remembrance (05:26)
Old light and new colours your picture hangs in the night
Is this the right time to set one free and go away
In the emptiness behind you I will walk about
Surely you'll miss me but long live the doubt
What will replace us
What will be our memory of this time
Second hand impressions
Hand them over so we can let it die
I remember one time when we were abroad
I was laughing at a book I had bought
But you were standing against the hotel wall
Frozen in an unknown thought
07 Wealth (04:27)
Cool night gave my thruth for a lie
Will you be here when I try?
I'm not set, cannot do it yet
Will you be here when I try?
Our wealth breeds emptiness
Another day to compress
My lips are dry when you gave me drugs to try
Hold me when I die
The sky has frozen to a wall
We die, we all
09 Walking by a Wire (03:37)
I could not breath against the wall
The clash of light against the floor
They held me up against the wall
Too young to be ignored
Standing by a building
Leaks out information
Passive death of freedom gets me
Where's my security
Behind my back it goes
Early morning's coming
The risk that I am taking
Recall a song that I heard as a child
No more false immunity
Inside the blistering cold
My youth unknown to me
I'm walking by a wire
What's left from me to breathe
Cold smell of fire
One day I will be free
I was born to be no one
My youth unknown to me
I walked behind the sun
I could not breath against the wall
The clash of light against the floor
They held me up against the wall
Too young to be ignored
Standing by a building
Leaks out information
Passive death of freedom gets me
Where's my security
Behind my back it goes
Emptiness within me
Exit signs within me
The one you're looking for is not here
Had no security
He will not come back
My youth unknown to me
I'm walking by a wire
What's left from me to breathe
Cold smell of fire
One day I will be free
I was born to be no one
My youth unknown to me
I walked behind the sun
10 Complicity (04:05)
I have no name my face a blur
I speak only to answer them
White noise becomes a voice
I hear it constantly
I dare not break the circuit
I rest only for a short time
This time I promise I won't give up
I have no right to let it go
I have no right to do so
My vision now is incomplete
I am affected by the warmth
A change of tone unusual sound
Is this the time to decline
I dare not break the circuit
I rest only for a short time
This time I promise I won't give up
I have no right to let it go
I have no right to do so
They control the circuit
The embodiment of what I've done
If I waver from this circle
A second pass and then I'm found
But he who walks behind me
He once saw the morning sun
I dare not break the circuit
I rest only for a short time
This time I promise I won't give up
I have no right to let it go
I have no right to do so
11 Evidence (04:40)
I hold my breath and check the time
One minute no collapse
If you only knew what I would do for you
One thirty breathing lapse
We're going in my voice is thin
When I tell you to remember
That no one will find you
My promise from the heart
If we part my pulse will guide you through
Be still for a moment
Everything depends upon you
If you die I will die too
Once we were heroes
But everything has changed since then
Now they recognize you too
I stay too long something's wrong
You walk out of the picture
I hold my breath and check the time
One thirty i collapse
We went in my voice was thin
When I told you to remember
That no one will find you
My promise from the heart
If we part my pulse will guide you through
Be still for a moment
Everything depends upon you
If you die I will die too
Once we were heroes
But everything has changed since then
Now they recognize you too
I'm the evidence
You passed the test and that's so good for you
Oh love will you read the letters I will send to you
Will I come along
Will they let me out to take the test
Oh love is the score enough for me to pass the test
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By wwwhatemoornet
An album, and I say it immediately, in which 'Metal' is really little, apart from the cover and the splendid artwork.
A big cauldron where strong 'Toolian' influences are mixed, a general and oppressive feeling of claustrophobia, and beautiful heavy guitar riffs always contrasted by very gloomy and vaguely psychedelic melodic parts.
