January 2021 Feature Release - The Gateway Edition

So we've now managed to rid ourselves of the pathetic excuse for a year that was 2020 which of course means that we'll be nominating a brand new monthly feature release for each clan. This essentially means that we're asking you to rate, review & discuss our chosen features for no other reason than because we enjoy the process & banter. We're really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on our chosen releases so don't be shy.

This month's feature release for The Gateway is 2006's classic seventh album from Swedish alternative metal giants Katatonia (entitled "The Great Cold Distance").  This album represents the culmination of seven or eight years of hard work for the band who had gradually transitioned their sound away from it's death/doom origins through to an impressively mature alternative metal sound, having stopped to dip their toes into the gothic metal pond along the way. Katatonia have never failed at any of their undertakings in my experience & "The Great Cold Distance" sits amongst their most widely celebrated releases so I'm interested to see how you think it compares with not only their seminal doom/death work but also with the heavy-weights of the alternative metal subgenre.

https://metal.academy/releases/902

I did my review, here's its summary:

The Great Cold Distance is another step into Katatonia's mainstream alt-metal nature that started with Viva Emptiness, an album that has downhearted lyrics, somber vocals, and occasional fast changes. The Great Cold Distance continues those easily accessible elements in a way that's still not great, lacking some things just like the previous album. While some songs have good consistency, the same cannot be said for the fairly weak atmospheres explored. Remember at the end of Dream Theater's Octavarium where it's mentioned that "everything ends where it began"? The Great Cold Distance is an album that begins where it ends. The album is more aggressive in a few parts, yet most of the time, it spirals back and forth from the atmospheric undertow to the soundscape surface. While there are a few great gems in The Great Cold Distance, a little more than in the previous album, here showing that Katatonia still has their deep dark side even at a slightly lighter alt-metal sound, the experimentation still didn't win back a lot of their earlier fanbase. The pace is kept steady by those song's fantastic rhythms, strong sounds, and solid songwriting. It still stays in the same poor level as their previous 3 albums. Either way, those gems are the backbone of higher quality in this album caught in the mainstream slipstream....

3/5

I have to say that I'm surprised at your general feelings of lethargy around this album Andi because I get a very different vibe from "A Great Cold Distance". It's anything but commercially accessible in my opinion. It's actually a dark, moody & atmospheric beast that's highly progressive in structure & only opens up upon repeat listens. In fact it's one of those rare releases that possess hooks so subtle that they creep up on you over time, only to have a more long-lasting effect once they dig their teeth in by commanding a greater level of emotional engagement. As justification for this statement, I actually had to give this album a full five listens before passing judgement (I usually go with three) because I found that my feelings were growing exponentially with each revisit & I wanted to give them time to settle. 

The production & performances are nothing short of spectacular & I'm genuinely in awe of Katatonia's class, professionalism & overall consistency. I mean there's not a single track that comes close to failure with more than half of the tracklisting pushing out into classic territory. Jonas Renkse's smooth vocal delivery can sound a touch repetitive & monotonous on first listen as he stays well within himself for the majority of the album however it wasn't long before I realized the suitability of this approach as a foil for the moodier thematic content & atmosphere.

RYM has this record tagged as an alternative metal primary with doom metal & gothic rock secondaries. The secondaries are completely misguided as there's very little of either sound included but how they haven't got progressive metal listed as at least a secondary is anyone's guess. In fact, I'm gonna go with it as a second primary as this release isn't too dissimilar to Tool's post-2000 material & I'd suggest that it'd sit pretty comfortably under The Infinite. 

I honestly didn't think I'd be saying this going into "The Great Cold Distance" but it may have displaced "Brave Murder Day" as my favourite Katatonia release & provides further evidence that the band will be successful at any musical endeavor they undertake. Fans of Tool, Deftones & Opeth should get a lot out of it if they allow it the time to reveal its charms.

4.5/5

I think I'm going to end up right in the middle of you two after revisiting this. I found Katatonia years ago and while I really enjoy most of their material I never had a strong desire to go back and listen to albums like The Great Cold Distance more than a few times. Obviously three or four years ago me had some strong enough feelings to initially rate it a 4.5/5, but going back to it left me feeling a bit lukewarm. 

Since I'm not familiar with their earlier Death Doom days, Katatonia was always one of those groups that just sounded extremely clean, polished, and consistent throughout all the material I've heard from them. The Great Cold Distance is no different in that regard because even though there isn't a whole lot of variety through the 12 songs, I never really get tired of their style. They know what they want to do and do it extremely well, which I think is worthy of a lot of praise. However, this time around The Great Cold Distance didn't really grip me in the same way that Daniel begins to explain this time around. Katatonia always manages to create extremely complex atmospheres out of very simple and easy to understand passages and layering, but eventually the album started to drag on with too similar of ideas. It's fortunate that Katatonia have carved out their signature sound so heavily that it doesn't bother me too much in the end, but I still think it's a criticism that I have. 

To sort of agree with Andi's point though, The Great Cold Distance is wholly accessible, but not necessarily in a bad way. There's still a ton of complexity to be had and I agree that this album may very well be a grower, to Daniel's point about subtlety. Alternative Metal styled Katatonia are one of those bands that I consider to be a gateway into the genre for people who say they hate Metal because all the music has is the same guitar riff over and over and someone screaming into the microphone. Alternative/Prog Metal like this shows that you can have a substantial and heavy emotional edge to something without necessarily going overboard with crazy Death or Black Metal riffing. The nice thing is that there are still plenty of heavy riffs to be had in this, so not much is lost by going towards the realm of accessibility. Great album, even if I don't quite think it's a full-blown masterpiece anymore. 

4/5