Review: Katatonia - “Night is the New Day” (2009)
Katatonia have been steadily pumping out albums every couple years or so, with each being a further refinement of their depressive rock sound. Their last release felt like it was getting close to the peak of this evolution, so I was curious how this, their newest album, would turn out. Certainly, Night is the New Day sounds like a continuation of the past couple albums, but the band seems to also be moving in a mellower direction. Honestly though, the end result is the same as usual: after a few listens to adjust to the changes, Night is the New Day stands as another excellent release from the Swedish masters.
One interesting thing about the album is that, other than maybe ‘Idle Blood’, there aren’t any songs like ‘My Twin,’ ‘Leaders’ or ‘Evidence’ that are immediately catchy. The melodies on Night is the New Day are more subtle and it takes some time before the songs really sink in (or at least it did for me). This album is much more deliberately paced and feels less heavy than the band’s previous couple releases. It seems like Katatonia really tried to impart a desolate, lonely, late-night feel to the music; the instruments and vocals use a lot of reverb, and Renske uses subtly harmonized vocals more than usual to give the songs even more of a haunting vibe.
As usual there are some definite standout tracks, and some more mediocre ones. Aside from the opener ‘Forsaker’, ‘The Longest Year’ and ‘Onward Into Battle’ are both excellent. ‘Idle Blood’, while beautiful and very melodic, sounds almost exactly like an Opeth ballad, so much so that I actually checked the liner notes to see if Akerfeldt did vocals for that song. It’s not a bad track, but being kind of tired of Opeth I wish it didn’t sound quite so much like them. The last track ‘Departer’ actually does have guest vocals, which help to give it a very ghostly sort of feel, making it one of the better final album tracks Katatonia has written.
I can definitely see how some fans might not like Night is the New Day - I was also a bit skeptical after seeing it suddenly appearing on numerous best-of-2009 lists - but after several passes through the album it has blossomed into one of the better releases I’ve encountered this year.
