Written by:	drynwhyl
Published:	November 24, 2012
Event:	Katatonia: Dead Ends Of Europe Tour 2012
Location:	Rock Café, Tallinn, Estonia
Galleries:	Katatonia - Rock Café, Tallinn, Estonia, 06.11.2012 by Ivor (30)

Having been listening to Katatonia steadily for more than 15 years, I haven't nonetheless regarded them as a particularly good live act. That is not to say that one would expect from them the flaming heat of Rammstein's shows or the pig-headed theatrical overtures of Mayhem. It's just that the introspective nature and the effect of it in Katatonia's music tends to suppress the fixation on the external facets of things. At least that's what I thought as I was heading towards their "Dead Ends of Europe 2012" show.





What do Katatonia and Opeth have in common? Apart from the obvious - country of origin, intersection of fanbase and, for a short while, also band members. The answer - both of them have now performed at Rock Café in Tallinn. What their concerts did not have in common was the fact that unlike Opeth, Katatonia had supporting acts - Junius and Alcest. Although I quite enjoyed the atmospheric and somewhat enchanting guitar sound of Junius, I'd rather there had been no warm-up acts. Festivals aside, I have come to realize that there are limits to one's awareness and the levels of which tend to wear out as the first band is followed by another which is then followed by the main act. In my opinion, three bands playing similar atmospheric and somber music is too much to handle in one take.





Katatonia kicked off their show the same way they do on their latest album, namely by performing "The Parting," a bit ironic if you start thinking about the title and its connotations. As the show was progressing, I noticed something quite subtle - the use of colours. Glancing at the stage, the first thing to catch the eye was the drum kit. It was white, surrounded by white man-sized posters inspired by the album art of "Dead End Kings" which, to a large degree, consists also of the colour white. And the guitars - throughout the show all the guitars entering and leaving the stage were also white. A very effective and clever contrast given the fact that the majority of venues have their walls and ceilings painted black, let alone the dominating chromatic disposition of the members in the audience as well as on stage.

For some reason, I was expecting to hear "My Twin" more towards the end of the concert, perhaps even as an encore. Perhaps because if I had to name one song from Katatonia that could be called a "hit song," it would most probably be "My Twin." Another candidate would be "July" which they played in the last quarter of their set.





There are always some songs that have the tendency to dig into the mind of the listener better than others. Luckily for me, there were quite a lot of those kinds of songs in Katatonia's set list in Tallinn: "Burn the Remembrance," "Sweet Nurse," "Strained" and "Omerta" to name a few. To be honest, I was pretty surprised when they began to play "Omerta" which is a great song but one which I never could have thought I would have the opportunity to see live.

I'm not sure whether it was because of my ears finally becoming accustomed to the over-amplified ambience or for the fact that the sound engineer turned the right knobs, but I nevertheless started to distinguish quite clearly the backing vocal harmonies sung by guitarist Anders Nyström on "Forsaker." Although he had been doing the backing vocals throughout the show it was never very audible until now. And it sounded great, complementing the background of the song in an echo kind of way.





On the whole, one must admit that Katatonia had put quite a lot of conscious effort into building their concert's set list. Although roughly half of the songs presented were from the last two albums, they nonetheless managed to incorporate songs from all of their post-growling era albums. While listening to Katatonia perform "Deadhouse," I realized for the first time how much they have really evolved musically. The atmosphere, the feeling and the song's simplicity was there just as it was on the "Discouraged Ones" album's setting, but it was somehow enhanced with the sound and quality of "Dead End Kings" or "Night Is the New Day."

Concerning the claim I made earlier, I was positively surprised at how much Katatonia have developed in respect to the quality of their live performance. Just as Jonas Renkse's participation in Ayreon has contributed to the vocals on "Night Is the New Day" and beyond, it seems that years of experience have done them well. The energy and atmosphere was of a completely different quality compared to the previous time I saw them 7 years ago.

And finally, I just remembered another thing that Katatonia and Opeth have in common - I'd really like to go to their shows again.





Set list
1. The Parting (Dead End Kings)
2. Buildings (Dead End Kings)
3. Deliberation (The Great Cold Distance)
4. My Twin (The Great Cold Distance)
5. Burn the Remembrance (Viva Emptiness)
6. The Racing Heart (Dead End Kings)
7. Lethean (Dead End Kings)
8. Teargas (Last Fair Deal Gone Down)
9. Strained (Tonight's Decision)
10. The Longest Year (Night Is the New Day)
11. Soil's Song (The Great Cold Distance)
12. Omerta (Viva Emptiness)
13. Sweet Nurse (Last Fair Deal Gone Down)
14. Deadhouse (Discouraged Ones)
15. New Night (Night Is the New Day)
16. July (The Great Cold Distance)
17. Day and Then the Shade (Night Is the New Day)
Encore
18. Dead Letters (Dead End Kings)
19. Forsaker (Night Is the New Day)
20. Leaders (The Great Cold Distance)