Ricordate come avevamo lasciato gli svedesi Katatonia tre anni fa? Con un ricordo ben preciso: gli enormi chitarroni, le ritmiche a tratti serrate, le influenze sempre più “tooliane”, la voce di Jonas più in forma che mai. Cosa aspettarci allora dal seguito di “The Great Cold Distance”?
L’introduzione in grande stile è affidata alla già anticipata “Forsaker”, che ci illude, facendoci credere per un attimo che questo nuovo lavoro porti avanti il cammino intrapreso col precedente... Ma se pensate di ritrovare gli stessi Katatonia degli ultimi album potreste rimanere delusi ai primi ascolti! Ah secondo brano è riservato invece l’ingrato (ma riuscitissimo) compito di avvicinarci, molto subliminalmente, a ciò che ci aspetta, mescolando le due anime del disco, quella del riffing pesante e quella molto più sommessa e “doom” (nell’accezione “Katatoniese” del termine): questo equilibrio rende “The Longest Year” uno dei pezzi migliori di tutto il lavoro (e il ritornello è uno dei più emozionanti mai concepiti dalla band!). Da qui in poi l’album si dipana dolcemente, trascinandoci dentro atmosfere eteree come non mai, ottenute anche grazie ad un abbondante ma sapiente utilizzo di tastiere, talvolta forse troppo in risalto rispetto alle chitarre, di un basso dal suono “trasformista”. Sacrificando la pesantezza a favore di una nuova intenzione, adesso più che mai debitrice a band come Opeth e Porcupine Tree (perfetto esempio ne è “Idle Blood”) e ancora una volta Tool. E condannando forse l’album al suo unico ma importante difetto, un’eccessiva ripetitività che qualche pezzo più dinamico e veloce qua e là avrebbe aiutato ad evitare. Ma l’inquietudine di “The Promise Of Deceit”, la cadenza angosciante di “Nephilim” finiranno per entrarvi (“scavando”, azzarderei dire) nel cuore, facendovi alla lunga dimenticare dei difetti e smettere definitivamente di rimpiangere “The Great Cold Distance”. Il song-writing di tutte le tracce è infatti profondamente maturo, l’attenzione per i dettagli maniacale, la continua ricerca e sperimentazione sui suoni sempre azzeccata, la voce di Jonas più calda e versatile che mai.
Arrivate infine alla meravigliosa conclusione del disco per innamorarvene definitivamente: “Day And Then The Shade” appesantisce e dinamizza per un attimo gli equilibri, per poi lasciare spazio alla poetica “Departer”, che anche grazie alle vibranti guest vocals di Krister Linder dolcemente ci sussurra un “arrivederci”...
Elenco tracce testi e video
01 Forsaker (04:04)
Rage from a distant
The name unfamiliar
Spikes reach the heart
Time set for rewind
The dark will rise
Abandon your freedom
Give up the right to find your true self
Forsake your own reasons
Forsaker, forsaker
Hand of a leader
Bleached by snowfall
Opposition is drugged
The great end is sweeping in
The dark will rise
Abandon your freedom
Give up the right to find your true self
Forsake your own reasons
Forsaker, forsaker, forsaker
02 The Longest Year (04:37)
In the nights of old I always wished
In the longest year that had me down
And I would freeze if you ever asked me
That was my way
Confront the guilt and try to overcome
Do not go away, I'm not there yet
Confront the guilt and try to overcome
Do not go away, I'm not there yet
I can see fire when I fall behind
When I give up my thoughts redefined
How cold is the flame of our uncompromising future?
How cold is the sun?
The city lights fading still
The coming sky so white
And I'm the dark of this our new day
This is my way
Find the one
This weight will hold me down
How cold is the sun?
I can see fire when I fall behind
When I give up my thoughts redefined
How cold is the flame of our uncompromising future?
How cold is the sun?
03 Idle Blood (04:21)
You there, the bringer of my despair
You are stagnation of hope and will
Oh, you personify loss and remorse
And you hide until my fear reappear
The love for life once bright
A burning fuse the only flame I have
Fate's spiral down this curve
The seed's growing my misery
These wounds kill time
My struggle sublime
Idle the blood, black state of mind
All dreams left behind
You claim to be my long, absent friend
You are the cancer that just moved in
You come with the dark night of the soul
But I'm turning my back on you, you know I do
The love for life once bright
A burning fuse, the only flame I have
Fate's spiral down this curve
The seed's growing my misery
These wounds kill time
My struggle sublime
Idle the blood, black state of mind
All dreams left behind
Idle the blood
The black state of mind
All my dreams left behind
Idle the blood
Ooh, the black state of mind
All my dreams left behind
04 Onward Into Battle (03:49)
In the still eclipse
Every light is a heartbeat
In the spring where I watch
The sudden change
I find this so hard
Onward into battle
Time is growing so dark around me
I, shallow one, burn us out
Day by idle day
Days at the sea
My words are incomplete
In the blind spot where I saw you
On the fourth at night
I find this so hard
Onward into battle
Time is growing so dark around me
I, shallow one, burn us out
Day by idle day
05 Liberation (04:16)
Sold are the eyes I have
And cold is the wait for nothing
In dark I write my name in a long line
How is it possible for you to try?
It's coming true
I've changed my name but I will pass it on to you
Journey, no present thoughts
Coming day, darkest will
It's coming true
I've changed my name but I will pass it on to you
Our thoughts entwine
You speak and I hear other words behind
I wave from the edge of the pier
And fade into dreams of sleepers
Marked, I have had this stain for a long time
We called on the bird long before
It's coming true
I've changed my name but I will pass it on to you
Our thoughts entwine
You speak and I hear other words behind
06 The Promise of Deceit (04:15)
Evening
Coming through the crowd
I hold my head high
Straining
Out here
Dissonance surrounds
I hold my head high
I see the wings behind your back
Burned all the maps to reach you
Watching distant lands
I saw danger
Then I felt the pressure
Downfall
This is our time
The setting sun over
All I ever had
So when did you come to think
That you would tell me that I have no one?
When do you think that you
Will give back the things that you owe me?
Burned all the maps to reach you
Watching distant lands
I saw danger, then I felt the pressure
(weak)
The setting sun over
All I ever had
So when did you come to think
That you would tell me that I have no one?
When do you think that you
Will give back the things that you owe me?
So when did you come to think
That you would tell me that I have no one?
When do you think that you
Will give back the things that you owe me?
07 Nephilim (04:25)
Loving mother
He has come
To take your son
Listen how he strides the earth
When only animals are awake
When the shattering of ideals begin
God of ruin will come to you
Loving mother
He has come
To take your son
Loving mother
He has come
To take your son
Fallen from the faded sky
Nephilim comes, foul air
And when morals will decline
God of ruin will come to you
Loving mother
He has come
To take your son
Loving mother
He has come
To take your son
08 New Night (04:25)
Pledge
I've forgotten this time
I am so uncertain
That my heart will go on
Oh, my beloved one
If you were here you'd find
That I'm not feeling well
That I will have to go on
Though summer unwinds now
I have no reason to follow
I have only you
My sun is pale
My heart's old
Why so quiet this new night
There's a white cloud
Under my eyelid
Oh, my beloved one
There is swirling dark
Shrouding my freedom
Cold is the undertow
Hold
My hand
I'm in the waiting line
Mute I stand, barren ground
Though summer unwinds now
I have no reason to follow
I have only you
My sun is pale
My heart's old
09 Inheritance (04:28)
Our inconvenient burden
It could be lifted off of us
If we gave up to finally let go of the free
Will that we were given
Our graves above the timberline
Our names chalked
Treasure or wealth no longer found
The unforgiving void
The forge in which our values burn
The resting leech our thinning minds
In my abstinence I turn to nothing
Our graves above the timberline
Our names chalked
Treasure or wealth no longer found
Let them inherit this fire now
Lest they will forget that we were ever here
Let them inherit this fire now
Lest they will forget that we were ever here
12 Departer (05:22)
The blinding white so far behind I am
And running over idle ground
This evening I kept my word, did you?
I'm turning around wait for your sound
So far according to who
Departer
The journey of our lives
I'm so slow compared to you
Departer
It's the month of July
Brother in your eyes I was the stronger
So how am I to cover you now
Without shadowing your path
This time I watch from the sidelines
Your ghost in the limelight
Face your fears and pierce the night
I'm so close if only you knew
Defender
The story of our lives
I'm so rash compared to you
Surrender it's the path of our lives
Carico i commenti... con calma
Altre recensioni
Di Hell
Questo album è, detto senza troppe remore, pallosissimo, un lavoro che offre in buona parte una sfilza di brani che non sono né carne né pesce e che non hanno né capo né coda.
Tutto scorre lento, lento, lento [...], lento come la melassa senza che accada alcunché di sorprendente.
Di ElectricOne
È davvero splendidamente drammatica e toccante.
È una questione di fiducia.
Di Taurus
Se l'obiettivo dei Katatonia era quella di dipingere ambienti e scenari desolanti e decadenti velati da un flebile senso di malinconia e smarrimento, va detto che l'obiettivo è stato centrato in pieno.
Un disco che non stancherà facilmente e ci terrà compagnia per un bel po' durante questo gelido inverno.
Di Hellring
Dead end kings risulta a conti fatti, il cd musicalmente più piatto e fiacco degli svedesi.
Lethean è l’unico vero highlight del disco, un brano che poteva figurare nel capolavoro The Great Cold Distance.
