3.09.2007

Tonight's music

Various Artists
December Songs: A Tribute to Katatonia
(Northern Silence, 2006)


It's about time that my favorite Swedes got a tribute album. This one is two discs and nearly an hour and 45 minutes long, and has been in the works for a while. The little German black metal label that put it out is named after a Katatonia song, as are all the subsections of its web site, so it should be obvious this isn't a cash-in. There aren't any hugely popular bands on it - I'd previously heard of seven of the sixteen, but I'm a big nerd, and except for maybe Xasthur, they're all pretty damn obscure. (Who's Xasthur? Sista, please.) One selection, "Day," was removed from the original track listing because the performer is a Nazi, but I'm not complaining about that. Spanning material from 1992's Jhva Elohim Meth demo to 1998's Discouraged Ones, you get a tour of Katatonia highlights during the years when they were an undisputed underground metal act, before the indie and prog and whatever other influences began to seep in and turn them into the unique hybrid they are today. Their early music blended downtrodden doom tempos with the bleak, hypnotic, high-pitched guitar melody and harsh vocal scream of Scandinavian black metal. Katatonia has begun to influence the gothic and progressive metal scenes a bit, but they've sunk in deepest with the doom and black metal scenes, thus a lot of the bands here hail from those traditions.

As with any tribute album, the selections that stick out are the ones that add a little of the performers' style to the rendition. Bands like California's Xasthur (appearing with "Palace of Frost"), Russia's Forest Stream ("Without God"), Italy's Forgotten Tomb ("Nowhere"), Finland's Wyrd ("In Silence Enshrined") and Sweden's Forest of Shadows ("Rainroom") are all pretty Katatonia-y to begin with, so they're pretty faithful to the originals. Others change things up, like Spain's Foscor and Germany's Aeveron respectively speeding up "Gateways of Bereavement" and "Shades of Emerald Fields." Spaniards Helevorn spin "12" into a more decisively gothic realm by adding deep croons and piano, while Germans Farsot roughen the initially clean-voiced "I Break" with black metal croaks. German pagans Hel include male and female vocals for their mega-moody take on "Cold Ways," although I'm not sure which singer gives the track its "featuring Winterheart" tag. Finnish gothsters Fragile Hollow's vocals are a bit too whiny for my taste, but the trippy synths they add to "Saw You Drown" are pretty cool. The most radical interpretation comes from Germany's Geist, who do "Love of the Swan" (from the infamous W.A.R. Compilation Vol. 1) with a strange yet successful industrial/electronic interlude. Far from what you'd expect from a tribute album featuring so many unknown acts, the quality here is uniformly good. No songs are repeated, even the less distinctive versions come off well and none of them absolutely suck. From the song choices to Kristian Wåhlin's typically striking cover art, which reworks the Brave Murder Day image, this is a great package made by fans for fans.

TODAY'S BONUS: I've already posted the other two videos from the latest Katatonia album, so here's the brand new one: "July." This is one of the best tracks from my favorite CD of 2006. Note drummer Daniel Liljekvist's Daylight Dies shirt, which he very likely got while the bands toured the States together last autumn. Liljekvist actually told me that I should buy one of DD's shirts instead of Katatonia's, because his own band's shirts were of lower quality. I thought he was joking at the time, but having brought home both, I can say Daniel was right.


You come clean
Waves collide now
Defenseless numb arms
& no voice of reason

So how come you invited me too
You knew I wanted you
You glide above
So this night belongs to you
I know this isn't through
Are you dead to love

I see the bright lights
It's the month of July
It's violent here
Why have you left me
If only you could stay
& keep me in
It's violent here
Why did you run from me

Heat
Night devour me
Repeat
Repetition

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