Not my review, taken from
THE METAL OBSERVER - Review - VARIOUS ARTISTS - December Songs-A Tribute To Katatonia
CD 1
1. Midwinter Gates (Foscor)
2. Gateways Of Bereavement (Foscor)
3. The Northern Silence (Beatrik)
4. Without God (Forest Stream)
5. Shades Of Emerald Fields (Aeveron)
6. Palace Of Frost (Xasthur)
7. In Silence Enshrined (Wyrd)
8. Love Of The Swan (Geist)
9. Endtime (Dark Fortress)
CD 2
1. Brave (Loss)
2. Rainroom (Forest Of Shadows)
3. 12 (Helevorn)
4. Nowhere (Forgotten Tomb)
5. Cold Ways (Hel feat. Winterheart)
6. I Break (Farsot)
7. Saw You Drown (FragileHollow)
8. For Funerals To Come... (October Falls)
I have heard people say that it was about time that one of the most influential Gothic/Doom/Death Metal bands received a worthy tribute album: KATATONIA. Now the small, but very quality-oriented German label Northern Silence heeded these calls and has compiled not just a tribute album, but a double CD concentrating on the early works of the Swedes and I must say that they did a pretty darn good job!
Garnished with a cover artwork by none other than Kristian Wåhlin the range spans from “Jhva Elohim Meth” all the way to one song off “Discouraged Ones”, so the lion’s share deals with the times, before KATATONIA discovered the more Alternative tinged musical regions. The covering bands can mostly be found in the Black Metal genre, with a few exceptions of course, which makes this a pretty interesting compilation indeed.
I could technically go into detail song by song or rather band by band, but instead I will just concentrate on the outstanding acts either way. FOSCOR add a certain Nordic Black Metal touch to the guitars and rhythm, which is a nice and positive surprise, while BEATRIK go even further and incorporate more of the traditional raw shriek and a bit tinny guitar sound that this style usually sports. While AEVERON do a very good job in transporting “Shades Of Emerald Fields” into their melodic and varied Death Metal sound, I am quite disappointed by XASTHUR’s take on “Palace Of Frost”, rougher sound, the vocals muddled into the instruments, probably my least favourite song among the whole 17 cuts on this compilation. On the other hand GEIST really surprised my very positively and DARK FORTRESS definitely sound different than what we are used to so far, creating a good middle way between their own sound and the original song.
On the second CD the highlights clearly are HEL (feat. Winterheart), who give “Cold Ways” their warm trademark sound, completely with clear vocals and some female support even, while FARSOT deliver very melodic music, a very harsh Black Metal voice and some half-spoken words as well, which, as weird as this may sound knowing my personal taste, actually fits really well and the violin sounds just great! And OCTOBER FALLS’ purely acoustic take on “For Funerals To Come…” is a moment of sheer brilliance at the very end, ending the whole thing on a high note, with the only downpart being FRAGILEHOLLOW, not because the band or version was bad, no, just because their kind of Pop-infused Gothic Rock absolutely does not fit into the context of this tribute…
But in any way, this definitely is among the best tribute albums that have graced my CD player so far, so if you are a fan of KATATONIA, you might want to check into this!
THE METAL OBSERVER - Review - VARIOUS ARTISTS - December Songs-A Tribute To Katatonia
CD 1
1. Midwinter Gates (Foscor)
2. Gateways Of Bereavement (Foscor)
3. The Northern Silence (Beatrik)
4. Without God (Forest Stream)
5. Shades Of Emerald Fields (Aeveron)
6. Palace Of Frost (Xasthur)
7. In Silence Enshrined (Wyrd)
8. Love Of The Swan (Geist)
9. Endtime (Dark Fortress)
CD 2
1. Brave (Loss)
2. Rainroom (Forest Of Shadows)
3. 12 (Helevorn)
4. Nowhere (Forgotten Tomb)
5. Cold Ways (Hel feat. Winterheart)
6. I Break (Farsot)
7. Saw You Drown (FragileHollow)
8. For Funerals To Come... (October Falls)
Garnished with a cover artwork by none other than Kristian Wåhlin the range spans from “Jhva Elohim Meth” all the way to one song off “Discouraged Ones”, so the lion’s share deals with the times, before KATATONIA discovered the more Alternative tinged musical regions. The covering bands can mostly be found in the Black Metal genre, with a few exceptions of course, which makes this a pretty interesting compilation indeed.
I could technically go into detail song by song or rather band by band, but instead I will just concentrate on the outstanding acts either way. FOSCOR add a certain Nordic Black Metal touch to the guitars and rhythm, which is a nice and positive surprise, while BEATRIK go even further and incorporate more of the traditional raw shriek and a bit tinny guitar sound that this style usually sports. While AEVERON do a very good job in transporting “Shades Of Emerald Fields” into their melodic and varied Death Metal sound, I am quite disappointed by XASTHUR’s take on “Palace Of Frost”, rougher sound, the vocals muddled into the instruments, probably my least favourite song among the whole 17 cuts on this compilation. On the other hand GEIST really surprised my very positively and DARK FORTRESS definitely sound different than what we are used to so far, creating a good middle way between their own sound and the original song.
On the second CD the highlights clearly are HEL (feat. Winterheart), who give “Cold Ways” their warm trademark sound, completely with clear vocals and some female support even, while FARSOT deliver very melodic music, a very harsh Black Metal voice and some half-spoken words as well, which, as weird as this may sound knowing my personal taste, actually fits really well and the violin sounds just great! And OCTOBER FALLS’ purely acoustic take on “For Funerals To Come…” is a moment of sheer brilliance at the very end, ending the whole thing on a high note, with the only downpart being FRAGILEHOLLOW, not because the band or version was bad, no, just because their kind of Pop-infused Gothic Rock absolutely does not fit into the context of this tribute…
But in any way, this definitely is among the best tribute albums that have graced my CD player so far, so if you are a fan of KATATONIA, you might want to check into this!
