Katatonia: Viva Emptiness

Band: Katatonia
Album: Viva Emptiness
Tracklist:

1. Ghost of the Sun (!!)
2. Sleeper
3. Criminals
4. A Premonition (!!)
5. Will I Arrive
6. Burn The Remembrance
7. Wealth
8. One Year From Now On
9. Walking By A Wire
10. Complicity
11. Evidence (!)
12. Omerta (!)
13. Inside The City of Glass

(The ! marks the best songs on the album, some might have more than one)

Viva Emptiness, Viva Katatonia!

Katatonia's sound is metal, with guitarists Anders Nyström and Fred Norrman playing in concert to deliver both crushing riffs as well as haunting melodies. Added in the mix is some slight electronics to underline the dark mood of the album.

The vocalist Jonas Renkse might not be the most charismatic frontman on stage, no one can contest his talent, or that his voice fits the music perfectly. Katatonia started out as a Death/Doom metal band where Renkse was growling all his vocals, but they moved on to a melodic, clearly sung style that they have kept up for several albums now.

Viva Emptiness is more rock and less metal than their previous album. The music is composed of the ingredients of pop melodies, crunching metal guitars and heavy rock riffs, sprinkled with athmospheric synthetizers and gothic mood. The guitar sound takes even more space than before, and the bass is more prominent than the previous album's puny bass sound, lending more groove and mass to the already heavy riffs.

The aforementioned riffs feature the pair Nyström and Norrman playing twirling complex riffs and blending them together into a huge wall of noise, which reveals a surprising amount of melody after several listens.

The band, while delivering incredibly melodic and haunting compositions, displays quite clearly their background by having blastbeats in the chorus of "The Ghost of The Sun" and hidden in the mix elsewhere, and also by the grinding guitar riffs with the high gain distortion and the distant echoing screaming added to the chorus of "Ghost of The Sun" and "Wealth".

But make no mistake, this should attract anyone who likes metal and doesn't mind melody, or people who enjoy acts such as Anathema, Ultraspank, Deftones and perhaps even Tool. While all these bands are quite different, they all feature the same things: clear singing, crushing guitar riffs, melodies, and possibly some ocassional screaming (some groups have more, and some less). If you are a fan of haunting moods and melodies, this should appeal to you.

That is, if you don't mind the heavy guitars.

Ghost of the sun...

Renkse's lyrics are good and far above the bar that most metal acts have, and he is well on the same level as Anathema with his bleak dialogue with the listener. His performance is excellent: he doesn't try to over-reach his ringing tenor range and contributes heavily to the bleak mood of the album. He is able to add a suitable amount of emotion to the choruses - without screaming.

One does wish some additional screaming on their next album though, since the song "Ghost of The Sun" is one of the album's best, and the screaming on the background of the chorus is a nice touch which I wouldn't have minded in greater portions.

Viva Emptiness is a dynamic and intellectually demanding album, but is still a musically accessible journey into the dark side of the mind and back again, carried on the shoulders of heavy riffs, complex harmonies and plain brute force.

The whole album is conceived with great care and taste, grasping you with the catchy choruses and captivating mood. After several listens the dark haunting soundscape of the album will grab your attention and will not let you go. This album easily made itself in to the Best Of 2003 list.