Katatonia - Sky Void of Stars (2023)^{Release ID: 42052}

I am no expert on Katatonia by any means, I really like Brave Murder Day and really dislike Last Fair Deal Gone Down, so my opinion on them is "variable" at best. Still, approaching Sky Void of Stars with no strong expectation either way, I was quite pleasantly surprised by what I found within it's fifty minutes runtime. 

This is a really tuneful and melodic album that references the progressive sounds of bands like Porcupine Tree and Riverside. Unsurprisingly, as he wrote all the material on Sky Void of Stars, the vocal performance of Jonas Renkse is absolutely central to the album. It is fortunate, then, that his performance is top-notch with a strong presence and impressive consistency. I don't wish to demean the contributions of the other band members as they too are of the highest quality, but they are more restrained and are used as the foundation and support of the vocals. This feels similar to the way that the E-Street Band back Springsteen's singing, they are all superb musicians in their own right, but The Boss is the main event. Personally, I would have liked to have heard the band as a whole let off the leash and the album lean more towards a progressive sound with some lengthier instrumental sections. There were a couple of times where it seemed about to happen, but it never really materialised. That said, that is obviously not what was intended here, the focus being less on progressive instrumental explorations and more on precise melodies and memorable musical phrases, with the lyrics and vocals being placed front and centre. To that end Sky Void of Stars is inordinately successful and I got plenty of enjoyment out if it. No doubt I will return to it at some future point, the scales of judgment on Katatonia now weighted more towards the positive as far as I am concerned.

I have been listening to Sky Void of Stars quite a bit in recent months. I would not class myself as a big Katatonia fan even (well not beyond Dance of December Souls anyway), yet something has kept me coming back over the recent sorties I have flown over this strangely endearing record.

Placing my finger exactly on what I like here is a tough call for me. Alternative metal is not anywhere near the top of my metal preferences. However, as with that Bad Omens’ record last year, I occasionally find a malignant tenderness in the less extreme metal formats that I stumble across, a sort of infrequent palate cleansing of the harsher tasting notes that linger on my tastebuds over time that helps me understand that aggression does not always have to be aggressive, darkness can exist through performing more in the light and that melancholy can be expressed without listening to someone bleed their very soul out on a record.

Katatonia it should be mentioned are amazing musicians and songwriters. They have had years of practice of honing their artform and it shows in spades on Sky Void of Stars. There is an engrained clumsiness in most of these tracks that they still manage to pull off without too many points of the cumbersome nature of some of the structures becoming unbearable. Tracks such as (my personal) album highlight Impermanence follow a trajectory where the lyrics sound like they are perhaps written for another song with different pacing and tempo altogether, yet they somehow end up so well suited to the track. I find this album therefore to be a very confident sounding release. Not cocksure or arrogant, just bold in their beliefs that their ability to express themselves need not always take a traditional or conformist path.

I would argue that the album stretches its legs beyond just the walls of alternative metal with those background keys and voluminous chunky riffs adding progressive climes to the overall construct. When they speak, the lead guitarist’s work of Roger and Anders possesses a sublime clarity that fills the very air around them with rays of colour that can at times seem lacking in the more mechanical rhythms that get deployed.

I have a feeling that over time my rating for this record will grow but for now it is a very comfortable listen that has duplicitous purpose as it can just as easily be background or driving music as well as lending itself equally well to a deeper and more exploratory listen.

The newest album from Katatonia is exactly what you should expect from this band and at this point in their career. That does not make it a bad thing by any stretch since Katatonia are some of the best when it comes to writing well formed progressive music, while still being able to fully elaborate musical ideas and structures.

This time around, the band are returning back to a time that included stronger gothic themes such as on The Great Cold Distance. The instrumentals are performed exceptionally well, with only the opener "Austerity" feeling a lot more disjointed than the rest. Part of that is the progressive tendencies that have been slowly making their way to the forefront of the compositions. Most of the time they are excellent; very Opeth-ian in the execution, but that opener just feels closer to Dream Theater than I am particularly comfortable with. The vocal melodies are in proper and consistent form, but as a whole, I found the instrumentals to be a less than vibrant palette; too much texture and power chords to compliment Jonas' vocals style, but that has been a consistent issue of Katatonia's since Brave Murder Day so I'm inclined to let it slide.

One thing that I notice while listening to Sky Void of Stars is how influential a band like Katatonia have become in alternative metal throughout the years. The biggest influence is modern Stone Sour, but textured guitars have a Deftones flare to them. It is also apparent to hear how much influence Katatonia have on a group such as Soen.

To be honest, talking about a new Katatonia record in 2023 is challenging because I know it's a good album, possibly great, but I cannot rank it anything higher. Part of this is their legacy status; coming out of Swedish death metal boom of the 1990s and transitioning to a hybrid of gothic, alternative and progressive music that is better than their acclaimed 1990s work. And as a legacy act, Katatonia have nothing left to prove and as such, have not really evolved much since Dead End Kings. It's more of the same from this band, but more of the same is still really good.

Best Songs: Opaline, Drab Moon, Author, Sclera, Atrium