Katatonia - Sky Void Of Stars review
| Band: | Katatonia |
| Album: | Sky Void Of Stars |
| Style: | Alternative rock |
| Release date: | January 20, 2023 |
| A review by: | Netzach |
01. Austerity
02. Colossal Shade
03. Opaline
04. Birds
05. Drab Moon
06. Author
07. Impermanence [feat. Joel Ekelöf]
08. Sclera
09. Atrium
10. No Beacon To Illuminate Our Fall
11. Absconder [bonus]
I have a sort of on-off relationship to Katatonia. You know, the one where you break up for half a year and then against all odds decide to try again, and again, and again. After Dead End Kings... something happened. They lost me. And they still have. It had been a long time coming, but gone were the glorious doom riffs and so-catchy-it’s-not-even-funny choruses, and instead Katatonia entered yet another experimental phase. A more laid-back, electronic, mellow-proggy phase that simply did not click with me. A thinner, too alternative-sounding production that failed to bring forth the majestic gloom and doom of previous albums. “Alright,” I said to myself, “perhaps The Fall Of Hearts and City Burials are the Discouraged Ones and Tonight’s Decision of this new Katatonian phase, and third time’s the charm?” It’s just that, it took them yet another uneven album, Last Fair Deal Gone Down, to finally reach that sweet, sweet spot that Viva Emptiness hit - like a shotgun pellet rain of poisoned absinthe straight through the chest, with the band surfing on a wave of blood all the way to Dead End Kings.
I know, I know, I haven’t even started talking about the actual album in question yet, but there was a point to that entire history lesson. If you don’t get the point, read it again. If you don’t see the same pattern as I do, think again. I fully respect Katatonia as musicians, and I respect that they are willing to try something new, but what I don’t respect is an album that sounds so flat, hollow, and static that the music on it, that’s supposed to be lush, melancholic, and heavy (even if not in the traditional “heavy metal” sense), just floats by without making an impression at all. Listen, I have no qualms at all about Katatonia having changed their style, I have no qualms at all about them not being particularly metal anymore, and I have no qualms at all about the sort of moods they are going for here, but songs are supposed to have hooks. Katatonia used to have verses and choruses that you simply couldn’t get out of your head even with a nuclear-powered screwdriver turned up to eleven. Not even the singles, "Birds" and "Atrium", have anything particularly memorable about them. Sky Void Of Stars has a few standout moments, such as the brassy synth hook on “Opaline” and the gorgeous chord progressions and anthemic guitar solo on “Impermanence”, and the Viva Emptiness-worthy “Atrium”, but even on "Atrium", the vocal lines just float in the void, supported by… not much at all, I’m afraid, because here comes the next big problem: the god damn sound, man.
There is no dynamic range to anything, and even when the songs manage to carve out an identity of their own with a cool part here or there, it all just blends together into a slow-to-mid-paced caricature of something that could have been good, but simply isn’t fun to listen to at all. Take “Author”, for instance, which contains just the sort of excellent metalli-melancholic riff I used to love this band for. I’m not supposed to have to imagine a theoretically good riff actually sounding good! Take the last song, “No Beacon To Illuminate Our Fall”, and try to remember it 10 minutes after the album is over. In fact, put on a random section of the album and try to guess which song it is. See? You can’t. Now, bring to mind a few of the actually good riffs I’ve mentioned, and imagine that the music actually sounded good as well. Then we’d have one half of a mostly decent album, at least. Why couldn’t they just have opted for a production job like the expansive, crushing sound on Night Is The New Day? Why do they have to ruin music like this? I can barely hear the guitar! Is this a joke?
Hence the history lesson in the beginning. I am for the love of all that is unholy hoping that the pattern repeats and that this will be their final tryout album before they realise what they need to do to get their shit together again: write songs with parts you can actually remember, and buy the biggest boot you can find, put it on, and then aim it straight at whoever decided “this is the lame production we want” and kick him or her straight out the nearest fire exit. Then write one of your sad songs about it and do it right the next time.
The performances and the originality cannot be denied on Sky Void Of Stars. Every musician does their job flawlessly and no other band sounds quite like this, but the songwriting won’t go down in any history books and the production makes everything simply dull. I’ve opted for using only integer ratings from 2023 onwards, so on account of aforementioned historical pattern I will give Katatonia the benefit of the doubt and round upwards to “average”.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 9 |
| Songwriting: | 5 |
| Originality: | 8 |
| Production: | 4 |
Written by Netzach | 15.01.2023
Comments page 2 / 2
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Comments: 49
Visited by: 310 users
| Netzach Planewalker Posts: 1761  |
Written by Redel on 23.01.2023 at 08:43 Yes, and if someone doesn't get the irony behind this statement, I'm not sure what to tell them.
---- My "blackened synth metal" solo project: maladomini.bandcamp.com. Whenever I write something funny, weird, or pretentious... I learned English by playing Baldur's Gate, okay?
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| Gladius Posts: 61  |
Nice review. I'm listening to the album for a few days now and I can completely agree with your words. I hope their show in Spain in two weeks will at least be worthwhile.
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| bguardian12 Posts: 16 |
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| faiding Posts: 1 |
I can't find my old MS account, but anyway... I get taste is subjective. I realize it's as pointless to criticize a critic as it is for a critic to criticize an artist. Taste is even less subjective than expression. But I feel there's an overstep in this review that's trying to make objective points, namely... Quote: Get their shit together? They have more listeners per day for their newer albums than ever before for every album since Brave Murder Day. A lot of this thread implies BMD was part of their glory days. Look at Spotify and do the math: City Burials: 15,600,000 listens (2020) Brave Murder Day: 3,700, 200 listens (1996) Are you honestly implying that a metric for success is less people liking their music? So that they could please the 5 people on Metalstorm that think BMD (or thereabouts) is what the world is pining for? The numbers quite literally indicate they are, and have been almost linearly, been getting their shit together. Their listeners and greater fandom has evolved. Teenagers yelling into tin-can-quality mics about things we thought were important in our puberty days just doesn't hit the mark. Regardless, I appreciate that for what it was and the seed it sowed for their evolution. I also disagree with "can't hear the guitars" and "can't name a song", but that's subjective of and to your memory and hearing. 
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| Daniell _爱情_ Elite Posts: 6103  |
I've known Katatonia since Last Fair Deal Gone Down, specifically "Teargas". I liked the album well enough to follow the band through their long career. Quite recently I gave a thorough listen to their whole back catalogue - we have this game with friends where we rate the whole discographies of bands in an online excel table. My ratings and opinions may be quite controversial to quite a few fans. Katatonia started off heavily inspired by the British death doom scene, as heard on the very clumsy and chaotic debut. This album doesn’t really contain songs per se. These are conglomerates of riffs and ideas that don’t really form cohesive compositions. Terrible growling doesn’t help at all either. And the cherry on top is the completely baffling quote from the movie “Love Story”. I wonder how many fans realize that the most prominent fragment of music on this album is borrowed from someone else. Then came “Brave Murder Day”. The first album where they tried actually composing songs, with a clear goal of making them monotonous, depressing and morose. They succeeded at least at that. But re-listening to the album a few times was a chore. “Discouraged Ones” is simply terrible. The whole album is basically The Cure worship. Or, to be exact, a very pale and sloppy attempt at The Cure worship. And boring as fuck. I’m not going to review all the albums here, don’t worry. I don’t have enough time to do that. In my opinion worthwhile Katatonia starts on Last Fair Deal Gone Down, and stays worthwhile until today. “Viva Emptiness”, “The Great Cold Distance”, “The Fall of Hearts” – these are probably my favourite albums, in no specific order. But all the albums since LFDGD are very good, minus “Dead End Kings”. How about the new one? Five listens in, I hate the production and struggle with differentiating between songs. I’ll keep going, because I know that Katatonia is not an easy band to appreciate. But right now it’s one of their less spectacular albums in the last 20 years. The reviewer’s rating of 6 seems quite accurate, as much as it saddens me to say so.
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| Daniell _爱情_ Elite Posts: 6103 |
Written by faiding on 24.01.2023 at 22:09 I love the way you phrased that! Expect some angry reactions
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| musclassia Staff Posts: 7643  |
Written by Daniell on 25.01.2023 at 10:16 I mean, it's not like he's made a particularly good point; he's spent most of his comment comparing the new record to BMD and implying that Netzach's review and opinion over their recent trajectory is misguided due to him judging it against that album, but Netzach doesn't mention BMD once in his review. It's pretty clear to me from reading the review that Netzach's 'golden period' of Katatonia is Last Fair Deal Gone Down through to The Great Cold Distance, and if we're relying purely on popularity metrics, The Great Cold Distance has comfortably their most song plays on Spotify, so it's not like the new direction they've gone in has clearly expanded their listener base in a way that any personal opinions on the instrinsic qualities of a record beyond the amount of listens it gets should be discarded. Furthermore, you even agree pretty much exactly with the contents of the review based on your previous comment, so I don't really see what's to appreciate in the comment you're quoting, which seems to pretty much be targeted at Bad English and one of two other users in this thread at most. It seems rather akin to someone coming onto your ponderer meltdown-inducing Poetry For The Poisoned review and claiming that PFTP having more streams per song than The Fourth Legacy shows that Kamelot had got their shit together.
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| Daniell _爱情_ Elite Posts: 6103 |
Written by musclassia on 25.01.2023 at 11:31 You misunderstood me to an extent, but this is not your fault, but mine. My positive reaction to faiding's post was not in any way connected with Netzach's review. I understand why you made that connection, so please let me explain: 1. Faiding very neatly summarised what I also think about a big chunk of Katatonia's fanbase, who seem to worship early releases, while simultaneously failing to notice how bad they are. I found the way he worded that part of his post to be cool. 2. Faiding most likely misunderstood Netzach's opening paragraph. In my opinion this paragraph doesn't display Netzach's lack of appreciation for later Katatonia, but it seems faiding read it like that. 3. You correctly indentified the target audience for what faiding said about "5 people on Metalstorm". Expecting some angry reactions from these people was what I meant. (By the way, I won't ever read what Bad English says, because I put him on ignore many years ago and have been enjoying his blissful absence ever since.) 4. I hope that we can agree that "getting their shit together" can mean different things to different people. (In my opinion Katatonia got their shit together on LFDGD and haven't dropped the ball ever since.)
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| Netzach Planewalker Posts: 1761 |
Written by bguardian12 on 24.01.2023 at 18:54 It is impossible to be completely objective regardless of my potential preconceptions of a band, be they good or negative, there is no such thing as an unbiased review or "100% objective opinions" (which of course is an ironical jab at the very notion). As for your opinion that I shouldn't be reviewing albums whose musical progression aren't to my tastes is ridiculous for a number of reasons: 1) I'm the reviewer and I can review whatever I please, thank you. 2) I have a very good background knowledge of the band which makes me highly suitable to analyse the band in a broader contest. 3) I can tell good music from bad music even if it's not "my thing". This album is "my thing", it's just not a very good thing. The music isn't even my main gripe with the album, it's the terrible production job. I hope they sound less lame when I'm seeing them in Stockholm in February.
---- My "blackened synth metal" solo project: maladomini.bandcamp.com. Whenever I write something funny, weird, or pretentious... I learned English by playing Baldur's Gate, okay?
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| Enissa Posts: 816  |
Little late to the party I guess, but another meticulously-written review. I really enjoyed the read! I haven't paid much attention to Katatonia since Night Is The New Day (which was great btw), so I'm not sure about Dead End Kings and Fall Of Hearts. However, City Burials was okay I guess. Although I agree with some points you made about Katatonia going in an upward trajectory since LFDGD (I always thought Discouraged Ones and Tonight's Decision are kind of boring). Now to the album at hand - it's like it's THERE, nothing much happening. The songs seem to blend into each other after Birds, which is not great. I also get your point about the production: I think it's overproduced, which I'm noticing with a lot of album these days, even affecting Jonas' vocals. Anyways, I'll keep listening and maybe something will change (I can't say much has with City Burials!).
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| SoUnDs LiKe PoP Posts: 1060 |
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| Netzach Planewalker Posts: 1761 |
Written by Enissa on 26.01.2023 at 21:24 Exactly this. Couldn't have said it better myself.
---- My "blackened synth metal" solo project: maladomini.bandcamp.com. Whenever I write something funny, weird, or pretentious... I learned English by playing Baldur's Gate, okay?
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| DarkWingedSoul Posts: 1385  |
Written by prnzokoshiroltra on 15.01.2023 at 20:02 just was downed by all the meeehish reviews on obituary actually, but like the new album quite a lot, probably havent like album that much sonce world demise 
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| DarkWingedSoul Posts: 1385 |
Written by Netzach on 15.01.2023 at 20:13 took the advice Netzach sire, and actually i grow to like the album, not back to form, but still clicked better than their latest albums...
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| pdepmcp Posts: 141  |
As a long time fan of the band I agree with many points on the review, but I lost all the hope you still have. It's not a metter of style, it's a matter of feelings. I still remember my mother 20 years ago asking me to change the record playing because it was too oppressive and sad. Not sure if it was Discouraged ones or Last fair deal gone down. Today it couldn't happen. All that emotions are gone, replaced with modern, better, but flat production that perfectly fits the soulless songs they now write. "Too much fucking emo was false, I know", but I'd like to have more of it. IMHO since The great cold distance it was pretty clear they were changing direction. There were still some great songs, but a lot of fillers that foreshadowed the future. Maybe I'm just of those fans who only wants more of the same. Many people seems to love what they play now. I miss the old emotions and I'd love some more anthems to (my) failures. I only got generic teen depression, instead.
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| Daniell _爱情_ Elite Posts: 6103 |
Written by pdepmcp on 31.01.2023 at 11:22 Perhaps there is another way to see this. When you were a teen Katatonia's songs were anthems to your failures. Now you've grown up and their music sounds like generinc teen depression. Can you see the reversal? Maybe the way you see them changed with your age, while they didn't? Food for thought for sure.
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| Danroush Posts: 44  |
Written by Netzach on 26.01.2023 at 20:30 Good luck with that, the drummer has absolutely destroyed the live mix the last 2 times I've seen them! Genuinely drowning the guitars out for anyone in the front half of the audience - I saw them in London on Friday, and just gave up my good spot to head way further back and the mix improved far more than it should (I'm used to sound at the front occasionally being a bit less balanced, but this was the same band sounding atrocious at the front twice in a row). Honestly I think the new(ish) drummer is driving a lot of the change in how they sound, and it's somewhat ruined one of my favourite ever bands, for effectively the same reasons you mentioned in the review, plus perhaps what feels like an absence of emotion in the music to my ears.
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| Danroush Posts: 44 |
Written by Daniell on 20.01.2023 at 13:44 I remember Jonas saying in an interview once, that it was both the worst album due to his vocal quality, but also his favourite one at the same time because of the emotion in it. Personally I feel like a performance can contain emotion without sounding so strained, and as such prefer the following 6 (or so) albums after Discouraged Ones a lot more. But I can see the appeal, even if I never throw it on myself. Sorry with the late to the party responses here, it took a while to listen to the album and then I also got locked out of my account due to signing up with a very old, forgotten email address! But yes I also prefer DEK to the ones after, because it still contains the darkness that the newer albums are missing, whilst also showcasing some well-integrated (but not overly dominating) prog aspects.
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| tintinb Posts: 2030 |
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