The Swedish prog-metal band are back with their 13th studio album, a follow up to 2023’s Sky Void of Stars. We quite enjoyed that album, so have to admit the anticipation for this one is pretty high. Plus, with us being sent it through early, we knew we wanted to check it out as soon as we could! If it’s anything like the previous album, I feel like we’re in for a treat! Let’s check it out together!
‘Thrice’ starts out the album perfectly for Katatonia; teasing heaviness before dropping down immediately into a quieter verse. It has a slight Tool-meets-Coheed-and-Cambria-meets-VOLA feel to it which I love, the proggy riffing and overall ethereal sound being incredible. The big riffing comes back in soon after, sounding absolutely massive, and leads into an awesome, proggy chorus. Both the riffing and drumming throughout this part, and the album as a whole, is utterly incredible, showing off the sheer technical talent of the band. The whole track feels like one extended buildup to that HUGE breakdown riff in the middle. The production on it is awesome, everything shining through and it all sounding so massive, even though not a huge amount is going on. And the fact that it leads back to that awesome chorus so seamlessly is again such a testament to their talents as songwriters. It’s an amazing song, and a great way to open this release!
‘The Liquid Eye’ as a similar opening to the previous track, but the tom work was awesome and I think I liked it a little more. I also feel like it takes a little more time to build up, doing so with the awesome riffing before hitting that huge chorus, sounding so good! It’s an interesting structure but feels slightly more settled and easier to follow than the opener, which might be why I like it more. We also get some awesome guitar soloing tucked away in the middle, not much but fitting the track perfectly. And the slower piano outro takes us home in style, sounding more like a grand finale, yet we’re only two tracks in!
The drum and bass intro for ‘Wind of No Change’ was a nice change (pun not intended) of pace. Add in the gang/choir vocals over the top of it, and this thing is epic as hell right from the offset. The awesome guitar riff builds up over the top too, but then it sadly drops back down to a similar verse as the others. I don’t mind the style, but it doesn’t work for this song; in my opinion it needed to keep going up and up. Still, it’s a good verse, and builds back up to the typically massive chorus perfectly. Once again, the atmosphere throughout is fantastic, as much due to the production and everything going on as the writing. The more plodding pace is excellent. And the solo in this is one of my favourite on the album, despite it being a touch short again. Outside of my one gripe it’s another amazing written and played song and a second that easily makes it onto our playlist.
‘Lilac’ has a plodding pace similar to the previous track, but has a bit more of a natural build and structure to it than ‘Wind…’ in my opinion. It’s good, but then the distorted guitars and soloing comes in and it’s great. And some of the riffing and drumming across the whole track… *chefs kiss*. It doesn’t at all make me jealous that I wish I could write like this… All the dynamics throughout are phenomenal, the band really making the most of every sound and riff and concept. It feels like one of the most naturally put-together songs the band have done to date, too. It’s great, and the third highlight in a row!
By the time I reached ‘Temporal’, as much as I was enjoying myself, it was starting to feel just a touch repetitive. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good song, but it has the same formula of heavy intro into lighter verse and then a heavier, technical chorus. Then we get some heavy bridge in the middle with some great soloing. It’s a great formula, but one already used pretty similarly four times already on this album.
As if to rub it in, immediately after ‘Temporal’ the tone and feel of the album shifted. The following few songs were different, taking on more of a stripped-back, ballad nature. Don’t get me wrong, there is still heaviness throughout, but it had much more focus on the slower, cleaner sound and atmosphere. “Departure Trails’ feels like the ballad of the album, reminding me of the slower verses of something like ‘Pisces’. ‘Warden’ continues down that same path, but the dirty bassline adds more grit to it. Also, by the second chorus it sounds bigger, adding in so many more excellent elements. It’s certainly another highlight track! Meanwhile ‘The Light Which I Bleed’ is like a slower version of the opening tracks, while ‘Efter Solen’ is a phenomenally beautiful ballad track of just Jonas’ incredible vocals over a piano. It gave me goosebumps and is another huge highlight.
The closing track, ‘In The Event Of’, returns to the bands core sound. However, after a prologued break, it made the song more palatable in one run, and was awesome! It’s an epic track, and the perfect way to close out an album of this magnitude. The chorus is awesome, as is the riffing and drumming, and everything about it made for a fitting finale to an album like this. However, it is also a damn good song in its own right!
Overall: I enjoyed this! Just to get it out the way, I don’t think it was quite as good as Sky Void of Stars, but it is still a damn good, atmospheric prog metal album! Everyone in the band are insanely talented, and have produced some awesome songs, riffs and moments across this whole thing. If you are a fan of the band or the genre, check this out immediately, you won’t regret it! I’ll certainly be spinning it more in the coming weeks and months, that’s for sure!
The Score: 7.5/10