In Mourning - Afterglow - review
In Mourning - Afterglow - review
Tracklist
01. Fire And Ocean02. The Grinning Mist
03. Ashen Crown
04. Below Rise To The Above
05. The Lighthouse Keeper
06. The Call To Orion
07. Afterglow
A review by
Dream Taster May 20, 2016
One major lineup change materialized with Katatonia's own Daniel Liljekvist joining on drums. And what an impact he has. Soon after the trademark high-energy In Mourning opening track "Fire and Ocean", the album takes an unexpected whole new musical dimension. "The Grinning Mist" is an Opeth-like tour-de-force. The next two songs, "Ashen Crown" and "Below Rise To The Above", are heavily influenced by the best of Katatonia and Dark Tranquillity. But fear not, for Tobias Netzell and Pierre Stam make sure that the In Mourning flavor remains intact. Guitarists Björn Pettersson and Tim Nedergård seem to enjoy the new musical direction and contribute some off the wall work spanning several styles and decades.
Seven tracks for 55 minutes of material, the progressive melodic death spirit is alive and well on Afterglow. From the bluesy guitar solo at the end of the second track, the post-metal harmony on "The Lighthouse Keeper", to the splendid clean vocal break on "The Call To Orion", there are plenty of jaw-dropping moments amidst the head-banging riffs. The eponymous closing track has a pronounced Dan Swanö vibe that sounds like an homage, on top of the name of the song/album being a reference to Edge Of Sanity's Purgatory Afterglow.
I am in two minds. On the one hand, I am disappointed that the high-energy trademark sound does not dictate the whole record, as was the case on the monolith of goodness that was The Weight of Oceans. On the other hand, there are too many great moments in this diversified version of In Mourning that it is hard not to love it. I went from skeptic to sold in a matter of days, so give it time. Overall, it is solid through and through, has many references to historical Swedish greats, and jives like any other opus in their discography.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 9 |
| Songwriting: | 8 |
| Originality: | 8 |
| Production: | 9 |
Written on 20.05.2016 by
Written on 20.05.2016 by
Bringing you reviews of quality music and interesting questions such as:"A picture is worth a thousand words. How many words is a song worth?"
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Comments
Comments:
11
Visited by
296 users
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Posts: 112  |
Posts: 112
Great review! but I wouldn´t praise it that much, I think it is their least creative album. Still waiting for new Witherscape and Belakor... I expected lot from this and I´m little dissapointed, so I hope for the best with these two.
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Posts: 37  |
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Posts: 79  |
Posts: 79
Want now, even more than ever, after listening to the 2 songs they allowed us to preview.
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 Posts: 11921 |
Posts: 11921 Written by Creativinity on 20.05.2016 at 07:42 They are streaming the album in full online. Check here. I've not been too impressed with what I've heard so far but they are one of my favourite bands. I'll give it time, like you suggested on the review. It might grow on me. This encouraged me.
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 Posts: 64329 |
Posts: 64329
Comparing whit Opeth now this bands stands much higher and plays metal , much better as latest opeth anyway
---- I stand whit Ukraine and Israel. They have right to defend own citizens. Stormtroopers of Death - "Speak English or Die"  I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
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Posts: 1342 Written by BloodTears on 20.05.2016 at 13:24 My first reaction was similar but it changed after only a few more spins. 
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| Posts: 11921 |
Posts: 11921
It has grown on me quite a bit after repeated listens. Now, I can appreciate it more. The album is definitely more on the melodic death metal side this time. The doom elements are abandoned completely but they are still progressive metal elements. Still prefer the older albums but I can enjoy the new material as well and what they are doing.
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Posts: 670  |
Posts: 670
CD owners: How do you find the quality of yours copy of this album? Mine seems dimmed down in brightness. Kind of how older cd's (>15 years ago) sound compared to new ones. To me this is very distracting.
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Posts: 132  |
Posts: 132 Written by MetalManic on 08.07.2016 at 18:47 Yeah the sound is a bit off 
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Posts: 670 |
Posts: 670 Written by MetalManic on 08.07.2016 at 18:47 I contacted the record label and they said that the low audio quality was intentional. WTF? I would have been better off streaming low res version of this than paying $ for the disc. Ah well...
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| Posts: 1342 |
Posts: 1342
The audio quality / production still sounds odd on this but I still love the album to this day.
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