I haven't heard the song in its context and haven't heard it too often, so within that frame of interpretation;
I'm afraid I don't like the song too much. It starts off fantastic!
Great transition into the verse, but I'm not too happy with the chords + vocals. There's no real distinct chords in there. The guitars keeps hanging on the same notes and the vocal line doesn't indicate any change of chords either. The verse has a nice surprising up and down vibe to it, but if the verse depends on that trait only.. it's not too strong.
Then the intro get repeated and you know it's gonna get big. And then it comes!
Big guitars, desperate vocals... but that's all there is to it alas....
I don't like how Katatonia focus on one chord every part... They did this with NitND too. I am moved by changing chords because it surprises me and puts the vocal melody in a different perspective. If that one chord just keeps hanging there it gets boring. Especially when the sounds get huge and you expect a emotional climax they can't seem to deliver.
Then comes a cool bridge, which is the strength of this song; the rhythms and the sounds. The breakdown doesn't get me. That typical Swedish tragic mellotron sound that does create an ambiance, but -again - doesn't move me emotionally. On top of that they choose to go for the surprise effect by putting the drums in kind of sounding like a different rhythm, which is something cool to use to add something special to something great, but in this case it only confuses and imo it's too much for the song. Either go full progressive and make it into a long jam/solo, whatever, or just leave it out altogether. This seems half-assed.
Then there's the progressive part with a cool high bleepy melody that only promises more than it can deliver. That's a really great original part that you can milk like a motherfucker and get away with it, but they quickly moved on instead of turning it into a awesome solo part...
They repeat the verse, add some new things that... Then they build up to the last chorus, which, again, disappoints me. Then there the AWESOME guitar fill that gets me pumped-up again, but then it slows down right into the final notes...
They could've used that fill to go into a progressive jam-part, or an awesome outro where they repeat it and repeat it 'till it satisfies. Now it's only a teaser that doesn't give you what you want.
All in all I'm just very disappointed. Listen, if the album features enough emotional songs that move me I'll be the last to complain about this song, because in that case it might fit perfectly well, but well... we'll see.
The song promises more than it delivers. Katatonia doesn't really have the balls to go into crazy, cool extended parts and because of that the song sounds rushed and in the end you're left feeling like: "where's the coherence?"
Too little catchy chord changes, too little repetition of cool parts... They don't use what actually is awesome about the song... Meh... Not too psyched about this
Although this costs a pretty penny more. Here is the link:
