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khaos

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mindy6158 Newbie

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Katatonia - Brave Yester Days Katatonia - Dance of December Souls Katatonia - Brave Murder Day Katatonia - Discouraged Ones It is insane how good Katatonia's old material is, all of it different from themselves and others, but all of it unified by their unique vision and sound. Those early Blakkheim melodies are among the most sad and beautiful that you will find from any genre of music, let alone metal. Sadly, they really dropped the ball when they decided to abandon metal, it just sounds so dull and boring compared to their early work, like a totally different band with maybe only one member in common. Some of the leads on Discouraged Ones sound like they might actually have come from Blakkheim, and they're about the only parts that I like, the rest of the guitars (and every other performance, for that matter) sound like they're missing a great deal. I've only ever owned 2 of their non-metal albums, the other being The Great Cold Distance, which I traded in some time ago, and now Discouraged Ones will join it.
Discouraged ones is literally my favorite album. I love that depressing atmospheric sound of this album. I also agree with FA, that not as metal sound honestly worked well for them, because even in the great cold distance and newer albums there is still that depressing element. But Discouraged Ones is a great great album. I actually prefer Jonas's clean vocals, never was really a fan of his harsh vocals.
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mindy6158 Newbie

mindy6158

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BS' date=' the rock format really worked well for them. Honestly the songwriting on Dance Of December Souls is weak, though it survives on the strength of its parts - kind of like Turn Loose The Swans, I hear it as a collection of awesome riffs (and some really nice changes), haphazardly thrown together. It's got a certain charm to it. BMD and Sounds Of Decay are great, of course, but their other material is just as good, even if it's completely different.[/quote'] Heavily agreed. I also do not think just because a band no longer has harsh vocals and a semi black metalish sound makes them non metal.
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BlutAusNerd Newbie

BlutAusNerd

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BS' date=' the rock format really worked well for them. Honestly the songwriting on Dance Of December Souls is weak, though it survives on the strength of its parts - kind of like Turn Loose The Swans, I hear it as a collection of awesome riffs (and some really nice changes), haphazardly thrown together. It's got a certain charm to it. BMD and Sounds Of Decay are great, of course, but their other material is just as good, even if it's completely different.[/quote'] I disagree completely, my ears cling to every portion of DoDS, and the songs get stuck in my head for longer than songs from almost any other band/album. The songs may not have as smooth of transitions as Brave Murder Day, for example, but they're also not as brave/daring (ironically) and are more adventurous, there was nothing that sounded anything like that then or since. I also prefer Jonas' more emotionally charged vocal delivery to Mike's more refined, but less moody sound on BMD and Sounds of Decay, though those are still excellent releases.
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BlutAusNerd Newbie

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Heavily agreed. I also do not think just because a band no longer has harsh vocals and a semi black metalish sound makes them non metal.
The vocals don't make their post Sounds of Decay material non-metal, the music does. Musically, Discouraged Ones reminds me of a combination of The Cure, uninspired My Bloody Valentine styled shoegaze, and some alternative/nu-metal influences, with the only thing tying it to Katatonia being the occasional lead that is reminiscent of their later metal material. Again, I'm not counting the fact that it's not metal against it, as other bands have been able to make the transition to rock with much better and more interesting results (Tiamat, Wino, Moonspell, Amorphis, even Opeth's mostly maligned prog-rock albums), it just sounds like a bland 90's rock album to me.
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FatherAlabaster Grand Master

FatherAlabaster

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I disagree completely' date=' my ears cling to every portion of DoDS, and the songs get stuck in my head for longer than songs from almost any other band/album. The songs may not have as smooth of transitions as Brave Murder Day, for example, but they're also not as brave/daring (ironically) and are more adventurous, there was nothing that sounded anything like that then or since. I also prefer Jonas' more emotionally charged vocal delivery to Mike's more refined, but less moody sound on BMD and Sounds of Decay, though those are still excellent releases.[/quote'] To each his own. I'm not a huge fan of Jonas's growls, or the song structures on that album; it all sounds immature to me. I'm not going to sit here and talk shit on the album, though, because I do still really like it. I probably prefer the first October Tide album for "harsh Jonas". One thing I've always admired about Katatonia, though, is their willingness to be awkward and fall on their faces - "experimentation", if you like - and I certainly don't think they lost that when they stopped playing melodic doom. I can understand that it's not to your taste. My first exposure to them was Discouraged Ones, right when it came out, and I was into a bunch of goth rock at the time so it wasn't a huge jump. The advent of the fully "modern" production, with Viva Emptiness, took me a while to get used to, but as I've often said, I love everything they've done. I guess that makes me lucky, I have lots more fun Katatonia to enjoy than you do. :D
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mindy6158 Newbie

mindy6158

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The vocals don't make their post Sounds of Decay material non-metal' date=' the music does. Musically, Discouraged Ones reminds me of a combination of The Cure, uninspired My Bloody Valentine styled shoegaze, and some alternative/nu-metal influences, with the only thing tying it to Katatonia being the occasional lead that is reminiscent of their later metal material. Again, I'm not counting the fact that it's not metal against it, as other bands have been able to make the transition to rock with much better and more interesting results (Tiamat, Wino, Moonspell, Amorphis, even Opeth's mostly maligned prog-rock albums), it just sounds like a bland 90's rock album to me.[/quote'] Is ok I understand, not for everyone;)
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BlutAusNerd Newbie

BlutAusNerd

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I really like the vocals on DoDS' date=' they sound so tortured, it suits the music perfectly in my opinion. I really need more Katatonia in my life.[/quote'] Everything up to Sounds of Decay is well worth your time and money. All of their early releases are different from one another (despite some songs overlapping), but they are immediately recognizable as Katatonia.
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BlutAusNerd Newbie

BlutAusNerd

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Can I help it if there's like 50 bajillion bands people have recommended to me? It's not like I won the lottery (and even if I had there are other things I'd spend it all on ahead of more albums) :D
I know the feeling. I'm kind of relieved in a way that my other forum has slowed down, I just can't keep up with everything that those guys are checking out with all of the old shit that I'm still catching up on.
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True Belief Community Regular

True Belief

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What Are You Listening To? Re Katatonia: Tonight's Decision has its moments but outside of that, I seldom listen to anything other than the early material. I bought Discouraged Ones and a few others eg LFDGD but the earlier stuff overshadows it all. Metal is better for having a band like Katatonia around but recent outputs don't really interest me so much. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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FatherAlabaster Grand Master

FatherAlabaster

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Re Katatonia: Tonight's Decision has its moments but outside of that, I seldom listen to anything other than the early material. I bought Discouraged Ones and a few others eg LFDGD but the earlier stuff overshadows it all. Metal is better for having a band like Katatonia around but recent outputs don't really interest me so much. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Discouraged Ones was the first one I got, but Tonight's Decision was the album that really drew me in. Among other things, his voice improved a lot on that album. I agree with BAN about one thing, anyway - I don't hear their music from Discouraged Ones on as "metal". Even when they incorporate metal riffs and guitar tones on their last few albums, they're still writing poppy dark rock songs. I don't think Tiamat, Amorphis, or Opeth handled their respective transitions any better, though they did it in a less formulaic way. Opeth's recent output, I at least respect, but I don't particularly enjoy it; Amorphis lost me around Tuonela; and I could never get into Tiamat, they just bore me.
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