Album Review: Katatonia's challenges our royal status in "Dead End Kings"

     As "The Parting" begins on Katatonia's ninth studio album, "Dead End Kings", it scolds us for hiding behind the scenes of life and, "Taking it all for granted/ Like freedom/It's something you'll never have."  Enlightened notion, considering the fact that most who follow Katatonia, a Swedish metal group out of Gotenburg, Sweden paint them as pioneers in the death and doom metal musical genre. Scattered throughout the 11 tracks that compromise Dead End Kings, it pours heavily on themes of  death and belonging, but underlying hints of light reflect that Katatonia is suggesting that even in death there is hope. By the time the album reaches the third track, "Hypnone", which loosely translated means chemistry, it's clear they're balancing their own chemistry between death and participating in life, "I need the sound of rain/Wearing dependence down./The line must be kept so thin/To live near life/Not within." The clincher in the track contains the lyrics that proudly stamped the name of the album, declares that even when things seem most hopeful all you have to do is look within me and find my own defeat, "Reflect my eyes/And strip this creation of mine/Tomorrow is so long/The dead end king is here/Black wings upon his back."
     In an interview on Blabbermouth.net, June 13, 2012, Jonas Renkse, co-founder of Katatonia and lead singer, commented that, Dead End Kings, "is about the corridors of our mind from where there is no return. Be a king or queen in your own right in these hallways, even at the dead end. Carry your burden with pride. That's what we are doing, twenty years and counting. Kings, because we believe in what we are creating, in our own disturbing faith."  What introduced me first to Katatonia, was a Myspace music suggestion while searching for melodic metal bands, I first heard the haunting graveyard track, "Unfurl" from "July" a three-song EP released by Katatonia in 2006. Although, I'm rarely active on Myspace account anymore, I have however been an avid fan of this under-appreciated metal group since. The reason I mention the song, "Unfurl" is another such gem exists on Dead End Kings, it's fourth track, "The Racing Heart". The track beautifully marries desperate despair and one's own graceful departure. "The Racing Heart", showcases stellar lyrics from Jonas Renkse, who after 20 years into Katatonia, has perfectly crafted the haunting allure that has gained the band a dedicated following all these years. The highlight of the lyrics, wrapped in the chorus, as Renkse's regretfully aches, "If I sow a wind now/I will reap a storm/You saw me sliding away from the sun/And tomorrow/Who will come/And put their hand over mine/Mine with the burning shape of a gun."
     Another notable track, "Lethean", which from Greek Mythology, one of the four rivers from Hades, pleads, "How long/Is the pattern going to speak for you/How far can your voice reach/"Your song below the night". The pounding hook in "Lethean", keeps asking, "What took you so long/The high grass/What took you so long," as the subject of the song hides among the trees and skyline in plain sight and how after taking many life's chances, "Now/This river/This time I will." Dead End Kings, doesn't quietly fade into the night on  it's final track "Dead Letters", a brutal sonic deathscape churns "Vexation/Internal void/My dreams are getting darker and darker," which sums of the album's tug and pull between darkness and light. Overall, the album can best be described as a quintessential dark Katatonia trip, a little more refined here and there but true to the form we've come to expect. Katatonia, will once again be embarking on another tour, opening up with Opeth, with a few headlining acts in Merriam, Kansas, Farmington, New Mexico and a stop at the famed, Roxy Theatre in West Hollywood, California on May 27, before headlining alone through Europe, with stops in Germany, UK, and their homeland of Sweden. Check Katatonia.com for more tour and concert information. -
©Rafael Andrade Garza, 2013.

photo courtesy of Katatonia.com

Music: Fan Review: Album Review: Black Out the Sun, Sevendust, 2013
May 11, 2013

"Nothing is Simple as it Seems with Sevendust" by Rey Andrade-Garza

As the first symphonic notes come to life on the song “Memory” it is apparent this won’t be just any roller coaster ride. Black Out the Sun (2013) from Atlanta, GA’s metal-based Sevendust punches out song after song, with sounds pouring out the speakers that are difficult to ignore.  With a combination of melodic bliss, monstrous guitar leads and quick paces that lead you on a carousel dream. You are driven down numerous valleys of hope, despair and utter beauty.  Sevendust seem to have regained their chops here on this effort.  On the second track, “Faithless”-- and in a wave of scorching riffs and thunderous vocals, Lajon Witherspoon belts out, “Found my way through the eyes of hell” with unapologetic grunts that would appeal to any grindcore fan but Sevendust’s signature sound is not a one trick pony. They are the fathers of progressive melodic metal because they love to mix harmony with brutal steal.  It’s apparent that in subsequent tracks “Till Death” and “Mountain” the attempt to chart familiar areas but with a new level of maturity and sound many fans predicted would come from the efforts of 2001’s Animosity. An earlier interview Clint Lowery, lead guitarist and back-up vocals called this album: “A basic Sevendust record..” and I couldn’t disagree more. Yes, the sound is unmistakable but not the risks they take on tracks like “Cold As War” where it opens with eerie orchestral and muffled guitar synths that come and return between chorus lines and reminiscent of something you might expect to hear from NIN or even Rammstein.  With honest despair LaJon delivers: “Cold as war…You think I would know by now, the day is gone away, the day is gone away!” Hauntingly enough, the mood of the album creates the ambience of a lost empire into one person’s soul. Even the ballads aren’t ballads but declarations or marches of a soap box hero. The title track, “Black Out the Sun” begins innocently enough with harmonious grace and has a mid-tempo range. This is where the album divides in half in a metaphorical way in sharp and stark contrast to the songs that appear later on the album which grow darker with more melodic chorus lines and heavy distortion. Delving into parts unknown, the sounds become deeper with quick resonance like in “Nobody Want’s It”. This becomes the perfect transition for one of the standout tracks on the album: “Dead Roses”. With reckless abandonment, opaque bells and transparent lyrics: “Hate your beautiful way, we live in your game” is muddled with “Decay” which booms the strongest riffs since maybe “Enemy” or “Ugly”.  By the time “Dark AM” strums into your speakers, the album has painted a clear picture of emotional neglect with raw conviction as LaJon achingly calls out: “Live until you die/Just come alive/it’s all you'll need to know.” Chills and goose bumps line my arms when the chorus unfolds with those melodic riffs. I’m rendered speechless. This song lets you know that Sevendust is not done sharing the journey humanity takes in the face of agony, trials and tribulations. Maybe, only Katatonia does melancholy better but you’ll be damned pressed to ignore the efficacy in which these songs are delivered. You might also think, so what; this band has already charted these philosophical renderings in plenty of albums, most notably, Seasons, 2003 and their last studio album Cold Day Memory, 2010.  Black Out the Sun lets you know they are older, grittier, dirtier-- stamped by the rigors of time. A close look at the history of the band mirrors most people’s daily struggles. Your reminded again that Sevendust is a people’s metal band: Hardworking, grinding out this their 9^th studio album. The message appears to be simple, so are the lyrics but the experience is anything but and therein lies truth as in “Picture Perfect” where it stammers into: “There's always something in the way/ I swear there's no more silver lining”.  As the album reaches an ending your no closer to release or understanding but a level of acceptance appears in “Got A Feeling” that breaks down into an acoustic ballad. The Sevendust story has always been of human breakdown in its most simplest of forms.  Just like an Oliver Twist ending, the album finishes with “Murder Bar” which coasts with a final slope into the roller coasters deepest drop; “With all the familiar places” and we are better for having taken the ride.