Katatonia - Night is the New Day

With the clouds hanging low in the sky and rain in the air, I sit in my candle lit office; needle of my beloved turntable poised in anticipation over the spinning vinyl platter of Katatonia’s latest release, Night is the New Day. I pause for a brief moment to reflect on the bleak weather and the perfect backdrop for the music that will soon fill the air with its brooding and ominous weight. Can you believe my luck? Gloomy and miserable weather to go hand in hand with the new album from one of metaldoms darkest and most moodily complex units! The Metal Gods are surely looking down on me in favor!

Admittedly, I’m a rather new fan of Katatonia, having only discovered them on the Viva Emptiness album. But, in so many ways, I feel like I’ve been following this band, and they’ve been a massive part of my life for decades. Maybe I simply relate to the heartache, the mental torment, the pain that they’ve espoused over their past releases. Maybe a part of me really likes lurking around in the gloom of my candle lit office. Or, maybe, just maybe, I like being depressed. I don’t know all of the reasons, and nor do I claim to want to. What I do know is that Katatonia has released a demon of an album that propels the listener into a primal state of self deprecation at the same time that it’s sending that same listener to a place where the soft light of hope softly burns. Even while I sit in near darkness and let the detuned chords wash over me, bathing me in sheer moments of melancholy, I marvel at the complexity of the musicianship and song composition.

Night is the New Day opens with the majestic “Forsaker.” The song is balanced artfully between beautiful and brutal, namely by the guitar work of Anders Nystrom and Fredrik Norrman. While one guitar is shimmering elegant clean toned passages through the left speaker, the other is bombarding us with wave after wave of detuned distortion. The contrast of the two moods created by these uber-talented guitarists is the yin and yang of Katatonia, but it’s the tormented performances of vocalist Jonas Renkse that defines the band’s sound, at least of recent years. The rhythm section of bassist Mattias Norrman and drummer Daniel Liljekvist may have the toughest job of all. These two have to keep the groove throughout the countless mood swings and abrupt time changes . . . and they do a masterful job at that. “Forsaker” is the epitome of the Katatonia composition. Huge musical movements countered by subtle instrumental textures, all powered to the touch the soul by soaring, though tortured vocals.

The sprawling epic-ness of the Katatonia sound is carried on through “Onward Into Battle,” dark and filled with melancholy. There are no wasted notes as the band seemingly adds a piece of their individual beings into the performances. With every verse, you’re gripping onto every word in hopes that with the combined strength of every listener that everything will work out for the better. The instrumental break near the midpoint of the track is filled with so much drama . . . the band very easily could have inserted a simple start/stop break, but instead, they chose to add huge chords of synthesizers to accompany the guitars, creating a short but utterly fantastic movement in the music. It almost has a progressive vibe while rooted in classical composition, while still retaining a full on gritty metal approach. It’s truly an amazing break! Listen to the wide array of effects that the guitar duo uses throughout this track and become amazed at the virtuosity that they employ in their craft.

“Liberation” and “The Promise of Deceit” are the two tracks that see my return the most frequently during this initial auditory exploration because of the superior musicianship and the bands ability to plant seeds of fantasy in my mind. In particular, the chorus vocal melodies in “Liberation” send chills across all of my emotions. Filled with equal parts sorrow and hope, Renkse’s voice should be a national treasure of the great country of Sweden. Note the guitar work on these two tracks, as well. Both songs are filled with great ambient moments from one guitarist, beautifully textured approaches of clean tones, and then shift into monstrous distorted tones that are mixed with a great technique of palm muted attacks and wide open sustained chords. The combination makes for an intriguing listen. “The Promise of Deceit” is oppressively heavy and ultimately creepy, awash in darkened tones, it’s the kind of song that would be playing in your head as you wander dazed through an empty old house, seeing aged pictures of people that you think you recognize as those you once loved. Man . . . the imagery that these guys convey through their music is always a welcome treat!

“Ashen,” despite being one of the heavier songs on the album, has a ton of accessibility due to the bands great use of melody. Now, I’m not talking the sickly sweet type melodies that make us retch while listening to pop radio. I’m talking haunting melodies that grip you in a real way. Melodies that actually feel like a weight has been placed on your chest and that you want to cry because these same melodies bring back a million memories that are filled with pain. Melodies that actually mean something. Dancing between the rich melodic works, the guitars pummel away with tastefully palm muted and somewhat aggressive passages. The off time drum patterns are a nice touch! You never know exactly where Liljekvist is going, but it’s always someplace of greater interest than most. Note the soft pitter-patter of what sound like fingers rapping across a desk in the early moments of the track. Again, nice touch of texture that may not necessarily move the song along, but it becomes a place of interest.

I hate to say that Katatonia can do no wrong, but everything that I’ve heard since Viva Emptiness has been nothing but pleasure to my ears. When Opeth’s Mikael Akerfeldt said something along the lines that Night is the New Day is the best heavy album that he’s heard in the last ten years, I certainly paid attention. Is it the best heavy album that I’ve heard in the past ten years? No. It is most certainly one of the best albums that I’ve heard in the past year and will undoubtedly make my year end Top 10 List because Night is the New Day is absolutely amazing. The musical moments contained within the grooves of this album are mighty and definitely deserve the recognition of the masses. The darkened tones of the albums material are real. If the subject matter isn’t real, then Jonas Renkse is one hell of an actor, because he conveys the torture and pain of his emotions like we were witnessing it happen first hand. And what I’ve found possibly the most interesting aspect of this album, and those before it, is that even though the subject matter and the musical tones are dark and brooding, the music isn’t depressing. Though it works well to be played in a darkened room merely lit by candles, I never feel the need to look for a loaded gun or a bottle full of pills. These are songs of inner strength and a firsthand description of one man’s ability to handle said struggles. Night is the New Day is simply a captivating listen and will require more than one listen to grasp the full weight.

-- Pope JTE

Buy here: Night Is the New Day

Buy here: Night Is the New Day (Ltd)


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Diablo Swing Orchestra – Sing Along Songs for the Damned & Delirious

The steps leading up to the dark and decrepit mansion are damp from evening moisture and the fog sends goose pimples across the flesh. One tentative footstep in front of the next, you and your company approach the heavy wooden door, and you hear the wooden wheels of your horse drawn coach rattling eerily against the cobblestone drive as it hurriedly races away from this ghoulish structure. As your hand grasps the bronze door knocker, you feel its cool texture against your palm, yet there’s something else. A deeper vibration rumbling through the cold metal courses through your nerves, further embellishing the goose pimples brought on by the exterior chill. Before you’re able to swing the knocker to announce your arrival, the door slowly creaks inward to a foyer coated with two decades worth of dust, cobwebs hang from every surface, half burnt candles softly flicker within the wall sconces; chasing sinister shadows deeper into the gloom of the darkened mansion, and a massive blast of sound erupts with a defined rhythm.

Deeper within the gloom, figures can be seen writhing in time with the sounds of some distant band. The light in the great hall is cast in hues of crimson as you make your way deeper into the throng of gyrating souls, and you quickly glance around to see chandeliers swaying precariously from the ceiling, shadowy figures skirting along the open balconies, masked revelers passing drinks and whispered words between each other, and the smell of brimstone and death assails the senses. At the far end of the hall, as if belched from the bowels of hell itself, you finally see it . . . but you can’t believe your eyes. A colorfully garbed group of musicians assail chaos upon their instruments, a cacophony of sound set to an oppressive tone, conjuring up some dark magic that leaves the gatherings patrons in a state of frenzied mindlessness!

One part opera, one part jazz, another part metal, another part Hell’s very own marching band, all of it avant garde, this is Diablo Swing Orchestra . . . and they’re performing tracks from their latest album, Sing Along Songs for the Damned & Delirious.

Opening the set with “A Tap Dancer’s Dilemma,” Diablo Swing Orchestra quickly shows the revelers why they are one of the more interesting musical units banging around the countryside. It’s a song filled with so many huge musical movements that I’m sure I’ll pass over more than a handful in describing the epic piece of sonic art. The opening drum salvo and subsequent groove of bass with accompanying horn section capture the swing in the band’s name. Add the huge walls of distorted guitars and the harmonizing female vocals, and this song captures the imagination by transporting the listener to some deep dark corner, the seediest of the seedy jazz clubs of the 1940’s. The composition of this track is absolutely, hands down, one of the most impressive and compelling pieces that I’ve ever listened to. I mean, listen to how the band seamlessly shifts from over dramatic male vocal performances, to harmonized female vocals, dropping all of the instrumentation out of the mix and leaving the guitar, acoustic nonetheless, hanging for a brief, yet brilliant moment, then dropping the instrumentation again to leave the bass guitars to deftly reach out and grab all of the instruments back into the fold. Listen for the fantastic guitar solo being played over the more subtle jazz rhythms, and then how the guitar fades out, leaving nothing but bass rumbling its groove. The incorporation of the various instruments leaves me breathless. How in God’s name did they patch this bad boy together and make the whole thing work?

And, it’s not just the first track on the album. Diablo Swing Orchestra creates and re-creates this same musical effect on all ten tracks gracing Sing Along Songs. “A Rancid Romance” starts off with a classically distorted wall of guitars powering out the rhythms in time with the fabulously produced drums. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, the triumphant strains of a trumpet screams through the din, providing a bit of a Latin flair to the music. And then another trumpet harmonizes with the first . . . and then the operatic vocals of Annlouice Wolgers (?) in duet with guitarist/vocalist, Daniel Hakansson . . . and then the emergence of the cello providing an air of macabre . . . and then the dual vocal harmonies at the chorus creating an overwhelming sense of panic . . . and then horns again . . . It’s a psychotic journey of paranoia and superb musicianship. Owing as much to classical music as modern metal, Diablo Swing Orchestra have created a sound that is clearly their own. It’s refreshing to hear a new and unique, and utterly compelling voice in the world of music!

“Lucy Fears the Morning Star” moves the tale of Diablo Swing Orchestra along at a clip nearing light speed. One of the more chilling and haunting tracks off of the album, “Lucy,” features a heavy dose of Annlouice’s operatic pipes, some intricate and outstanding drum work from Andreas Halvardsson. The cello work, performed by Johannes Bergion, comes from some dastardly place, deep within a seeping crevice of ooze and gore. It’s absolutely brilliant! The tones Bergion brings out of the instrument conjure up images of torment souls as they dance an eternal dance of despair. The low end, provided by bassist Andy Johansson, creeps along the songs like low lying fog. It’s always there, camouflaging the ground making each step we take along this musical journey an uncertain one. By the end of the song, we’ve gone from chilling pseudo-opera to full on Latin swing . . . the band brings in a barrage of polyrhythm’s that work perfectly with the full fledged assault of horns. Man! What an amazing journey!

Folks . . . buy this album. Don’t wait until the end of this review. There’s no need. All I’m gonna’ do is summarize a few things.

Diablo Swing Orchestra are beyond anything that words can describe. At one point, while listening to Sing Along Songs for the Damned & Delirious, I openly questioned to no one in particular if these guys were for real. Thankfully, I didn’t get a response, but after repeated listeners, and let me tell you . . . this album has been non-stop for the past week and a half, it apparent that Diablo Swing Orchestra are the real deal, they have no peers, and they will have your full attention with every note struck. If you like your music complex, filled with dynamic tempo shifts, or dramatic breaks in sound, then this album will be your Holy Grail, your Ark of the Covenant, your Spear of Destiny. The music moves and never seems to let up. Even when the musical passages begin to soften, you just know that something terrifying is gonna’ pop out of the darkness to strip you of your sanity. You’ll have to excuse me now . . . there’s a party at some creepy mansion that I need to get back to . . . - Pope JTE

Buy here: Sing-Along Songs for the Damned & Delirious


www.myspace.com/diabloswingorchestra

http://www.diabloswing.com/