Review
This sucker is released in March 2006 and lands on my desk as a surprise Christmas offering. To say I was looking forward to the new Katatonia album would be a huge understatement. They are one of the very few bands out there who genuinely have a 'sound' and therefore deserve enormous respect. They have developed rapidly into true giants. Transcending "Gothic" and "Doom" long ago, they have carved out their own genre and fostered a devoted fanbase in the process. It's a lonely musical landscape for Katatonia, simply because they are the only ones venturing into this virgin territory, and I'm sure they are ecstatic in their solitude.
If you know Katatonia all you really need to be assured of at this point is that they have stayed loyal to their craft. They have, naturally, pushed forward whilst absorbing a fresh palette of colours. It is 100% Katatonia and yet more so. Predictability got shown the door a long, long time ago, making Katatonia an act always ready with a surprise.
Let's talk about the word 'Heavy' for a moment. Katatonia simply own the word these days. The production is huge, this thing is built like the capital city on a planet choked with concrete and steel. Imagine an alien world without a shard of green and a population buckling under the weight of smog, filth, pollution and shit. Imagine a world of no prospects, no hope and a short miserable life of guaranteed pain and failure. Imagine that and you still have no concept of how unimaginably heavy Katatonia is these days.
Despite this all envoloping bleakness the band paradoxically tunes into the rarest, mercurial quintessence - great songs. 'The Great Cold Distance' has a higher quota of outstanding songs. When you realise that this in comparison to landmarks such as 'Tonight's Decision' and 'Viva Emptiness' it makes the achievement all the greater. Katatonia always excel against impossible odds it seems.
The urban poetry of Jonas Renske here eschews the previous awkward slippage into profanity of 'Viva' but hits home even harder. His words are always deeply personal, always cutting and enthralling. Listening to Renske's outpourings is the audio equivelent of that sick feeling watching humanity at its most impersonal and cruel.
Musically, 'The Great Cold Distance' ploughs a landscape polarized between gossamer and a fist. Each song is a story, each song bears little relation to its predecessor, all juxtapose fragility with monolithic heaviness. If you have followed the Katatonia journey thus far from 'Dance Of December Souls' you will appreciate that the band strides forward on subtlty. It's the details that make this band so engaging. Details that lay in wait, that rise upon repeated listens.
Picking individual highlights is nigh on impossible but opener 'Leaders' is simply massive, made all the more disturbing by the scything whispers of "Do you? Do you?, Do you?..." Renske at his most perceptive. The drums on this track are staggeringly strong. 'Deliberation' switches tack but again is just monstrous. 'Soil's Song' follows with equal authority, as does the infectious 'My Twin'. It is by this stage it becomes apparent that Katatonia has crafted an album in the old fashioned sense, a whole rather than a product to be dissected track by track. The word filler was never on the agenda and the entire work pulls the listener along in a tidal flow.
As with all Katatonia releases 'The Great Cold Distance' is not a one shot star turn. Not only do you need to listen to the record again and again the damn thing won't let you do otherwise. This is probably the only drug on the market that gives you a bigger high upon each hit. Just like 'Viva Emptiness', but play number ten (and you will reach that and beyond…) the album lives up to its title. There's a distance here that must be travelled. You don't need me to tell you where the adjectives 'Great' and 'Cold' come into the equation.
Dare I give this album of the year? Jesus, the year hasn't even started yet but who on earth could possibly top this?
Garry Sharpe-Young
