Katatonia
Dead End Kings
01. The Parting
02. The One You Are Looking For Is Not Here
03. Hypnone
04. The Racing Heart
05. Buildings
06. Leech
07. Ambitions
08. Unto You
09. Lethean
10. First Prayer
11. Dead Letters
[08/28/12]
[Peaceville Records]
As any fan of metal music should know, darkness can be a beautiful thing; with this firmly in mind Katatonia have continuously set out to carve beautiful and melodic albums that are deeply entrenched in the gloomier side of the human subconscious. Through a heavy reliance on imagery that calls to mind thoughts of isolation, depression, death, and loss, the band capture a spirit of fear and beauty while at the same time continuously furthering themselves from the metal template, much like their Swedish peers, Opeth — another band whose formative years were rooted in death metal. Unlike Opeth, however, Katatonia have taken a decidedly more subtle and transitional route to developing their sound; slowing changing, adding, and subtracting elements from each release to create something that is entirely their own, as opposed to the jarring and slightly unsettling abandonment of metal qualities as on Opeth’s latest release, Heritage.















