It took three long, long years till the dark rockers KATATONIA settled in with the Ghost Ward Studio in Stockholm to record their eighth album. I have to admit that I had expected something totally different from the Swedes anno 2009. Since The Great Cold Distance was calmer, nearly more deliberately composed and by far less brutal than the previous album Viva Emptiness, I supposed in the front-up to the release of the new record that KATATONIA would take a step backward with Night Is The New Day and would sound once again more aggressive. But the Stockholm-based band has put the calm, playful element of The Great Cold Distance even more to the fore on the new record. In doing so, they walk more often than ever before on progressive rocking paths in the vein of Porcupine Tree or Opeth.
Forsaker has already been offered as free download by Peaceville Records before the official release date. A clever move, because the song reminds mainly of the forerunner with its brutal, staccato-like rhythm guitars and the highly complex songwriting. The next track The Longest Year takes the same line and can score with a century verse and a trip-rocking verse with fantastic clean guitars (Anders and Fred have once again pulled out all the stops of their talents and recorded the best riffs of their career). Those of you, who imagined you were safe and expected The Great Cold Distance part 2, are disabused at the latest with the third song Idle Blood. KATATONIA have ever since been into balladic, pop-like songs (such as Day off Brave Murder Day or Omerta off Viva Emptiness). The said song reminds in its cool and inconspicuous, but still enthralling melancholy of Opeth’s Damnation record or Porcupine from In Absentia on. Idle Blood impresses with an incredible refrain as actually every track on Night Is The New Day, where Jonas proves once again, why he is in great demand as guest vocalist in such constants like Ayreon, Swallow The Sun or Pantheon I. You just can kneel down to this. And it comes to no end… Onward Into Battle (according to Anders and Jonas a tribute to The Cure’s Disintegration album – at least considering the verse…) is enriched with a goose bumps refrain and a verse that reminds of Follower and In The White off the forerunner – just, well… more mature… That maybe sounds like a banal term, but you cannot justify such an inflationary use of superlatives with any other band but KATATONIA On it goes with Liberation. Oh my god, the starting riff pumps so heavy out of the speakers. And in the next moment, Jonas brings the listener back to earth with another enchanting vocal melody, before the starting theme may serve as pre-chorus. The song reminds of sinister pearls such as Ghost Of The Sun or Leaders concerning the prevailing mood. In the verse of The Promise Of Deceit the band grooves neatly and it’s a pleasure to hear that those three years between the last record and Night Is The New Day have been used to refine each small detail until the guys around Jonas Renkse finally were pleased. You haven’t experienced the Swedes so dark as on Nephilim – even certified melo doomsters like My Dying Bride don’t make it to write such great music like the intro riff of the song. Simply incredible, how Jonas makes it to blow up the prevailing mood with his vocals that is set by a riff and thus changes the character of the whole song to his taste – he sort of has things under his control… New Night once again is enriched by a killer groove and the dreamy Inheritance could be the continuation of Idle Blood. Day And Then The Shade breathes Gothic Rock air, but without sounding like a simple copy of something – KATATONIA is not in need of something like this. Departer reminds of Evidence in view of the chord sequences and is the last track on this record. The song is perfectly suited for this position on the track list as it abstracts the sound of KATATONIA anno 2009 pretty accurately: heartwarming melancholy, love to experiments, sunshine, unpredictability and joy of playing en masse. And in choosing Krister Linder, whose theme is comparable to Jonas’ one, but whose voice seems even more fragile, as guest singer, KATATONIA hit the bull’s-eye.
To cut a long story short, though I doubted in a conversation with my best friend Holla some days ago what to think of Night Is The New Day due to my expectations and so on, the following now is clear to me after countless listening to the album: next to Sólstafir’s Köld, Amorphis’ Skyforger and MEWs No More Stories this is THE album of the year 2009!!!!