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With their latest release Mnemosynean, Swedish prog metal masters Katatonia take us on a trip down memory lane. This double-disc album is a compilation of b-sides, bonus tracks and remixes that span their entire thirty-year career, from the early days when they were a nascent death metal band trying to find ways to push the boundaries of the genre, to the current times where they are globally recognized as one of the frontrunners of the progressive post-metal phenomenon.
The album is cleverly organized in reverse chronological order, starting in disc 1 with several outtakes from the recording sessions of The Fall of Hearts, and ending in disc 2 with a track recorded back in 1994 immediately after the release of the band’s debut LP Dance of December Souls. Disc 2 also contains a handful of remixes, mostly of tracks from The Great Cold Distance, which nicely round off the album. The broad scope of the compilation gives listeners a fantastic bird’s eye view of the evolution of Katatonia’s sound over the years, which is a nice reminder of how far this band has come from their early death metal days. It also shows that the seeds of the band’s current sonic incarnation were sown long time ago, when already in the mid-1990s Anders Nyström and Jonas Renkse were experimenting with acoustic soundscapes and mellower musical forms, breaking away from the metallic assaults of the death metal canon.
The most remarkable aspect of Mnemosynean is that, in many cases, the quality of the b-sides included in the collection is as high as that of the tracks that found a home in the band’s full-length albums. As explained in the detailed track-by-track liner notes compiled by the band members themselves, the exclusion of these songs was often due to timing issues: several of the tracks included here were written late in the recording session of an album and there was simply not enough studio time to record them in time for the release of the record. In other cases, the songs were excluded because the band felt they did not fit well within the track-list of their current album, occasionally because they were slightly more left-field than your typical Katatonia’s song. Only in a rare few cases the band decided to leave them out because they did not like them much – as Anders Nyström openly admits for “Fractured”, for example.
The high quality of the material included in the compilation ensures a highly enjoyable and exciting listening experience, with plenty of highlights. “Vakaren” and “Sistere” are fantastic songs that take us straight back to the progressive leanings of The Fall of Hearts, and are as good as anything that you can find on that record. “Wide Awake in Quietus” is taken from the same sessions, but it has a more alternative rock feel that reminds me of The Pineapple Thief. This track also features a cool guitar solo from Paradise Lost’s Greg Mackintosh. Meanwhile, “Unfurl” is a Katatonia’s classic and a staple of their live concerts. It is astonishing to read that this track was coarsely put together by producer David Castillo in his apartment over his laptop computer. “Wait Outside” is another great song, taken from the Viva Emptiness recording sessions. Its three minutes effortlessly recreate the jarring sense of uneasiness that album is soaked in.
Elsewhere, things take a slightly quirkier and more unconventional turn. On “Night Comes Down” the Swedes give the Katatonia-treatment to a Judas Priest’s ballad from their 1984 album Defenders of the Faith. It is a sombre, melancholic track that feels surprisingly close to some of the material Katatonia have released on their most recent record, City Burials. “O How I Enjoy the Light” is another cover, this time by American singer-songwriter Will Oldham. Recorded spontaneously in 2001, this moving, largely acoustic track harks back to the sound of Tonight’s Decision, and is a powerful reminder of the breadth of Katatonia’s influences already back in the 1990s. I also want to mention “The Act of Darkening”, a dark meditation inspired by the Chernobyl disaster where the band experiments with acoustic ambiance and sophisticated vocal harmonies, in a similar way as they did on their acoustic album Dethroned & Uncrowned. The result is simply breath-taking, making this song my preferred track of the album.
Speaking of quirky material, it’s impossible not to mention “Scarlet Heavens” where Katatonia take an unexpected gothic turn. As Nyström explains in the liner notes, this song was recorded after the success of the band’s debut album Dance of December Souls, when Katatonia felt they wanted to explore new sonic possibilities. The end result was “Scarlet Heavens”, a song that sounds like a cross between The Sisters of Mercy and Type O Negative. While the band eventually did not follow up on this sonic experiment, it is fascinating to listen to it today.
As a long-time fan of the band, I had lots of fun listening to this compilation. So, should you plunk down your hard-earned cash for it? This is a pertinent question, given how most of the tracks included here have been released before in one form or another (as bonus tracks of the special editions of the full-length albums, as b-sides of singles, on EPs, etc.). So if you have been following this band for years, you may already own a large chunk of the material on offer here, as I do. Personally, I like the idea of having these songs all organized in the same physical release and I did greatly enjoy the “time travel” experience of going through the material in reverse chronological order. Plus, I did not already own all of these songs, so there have been a few pleasant surprises on this record too. The addition of insightful line notes written by band members and producers was also a definite bonus for me, and so was the detailed essay included in the booklet written by music journalist Eleanor Goodman. Ultimately, as it is often the case with these compilation releases, it comes down to personal preferences whether you see this as worthy purchase or not. But if you do decide to give it a spin, rest assured that this is a high-quality release, meticulously put together and containing some top-notch material from one of the most accomplished progressive post-metal acts out today – so disappointed you shall not be!
[Originally written for The Metal Observer]