The Fall of Hearts - Katatonia
The Fall of Hearts is Katatonia's 10th studio album. Their previous album Dead End Kings was rightly acclaimed, across both the metal and progressive musical worlds. The band have been on a fascinating musical journey, increasingly embracing progressive music, and the creation of breathtaking musical soundscapes, that can fully deliver their musical ambitions. Still though with the dark heart of metal playing a central place in their music.
Opening track Takeover completely embodies this musical journey. Guitars gently cascade over the introduction, with the most beautiful harmony vocals accompanying Jonas Renkse's distinctive and emotionally affecting voice. A distorted yet distinctively melodic guitar riff, then cranks up the intensity, as the song launches into an atmospheric keyboards drenched section, before heading back into the gentle guitar and harmonies. What follows next is a complete revelation, as Katatonia hit impossibly fast polyrhythms and tech death like guitar figures, before returning to some fabulous classic progressive rock guitar soloing. An astonishing track in its breadth of musical vision!
Sanction has some really chunky progressive riffing, complemented by some contrasting gentle percussion alongside the drums, and some very elegiac guitar playing. It gives the song both power and pathos, all connected through Jonas's expressive vocal, which rises and swoops with the music. A landmark of this album is Jonas's outstanding vocals, which are simultaneously an integral part of the musical soundscapes the band creates, while at the same time leading the music through a range of emotional intensity and moods.
Residual has a lovely jazz feel with syncopated drums and keyboard flourishes, and hand percussion. The final section of the song turns up the intensity, with some funky guitar rhythms and Jonas's voice reaching for the heavens.
The Night Subscriber hits an almost psychedelic tone with the opening organ melody. The polyrhythms hit again, and Jonas and the guitars of Anders Nystrom and Roger Ojersson hit another intense peak of sound, that is completely compelling.
The final track Passer, with its strident guitars and heavy feel, is in contrast a hammer blow to some of the gentler sounds on the album. There are few bands that can bring off such musical contrasts, and still make it feel to all fit conceptually. Katatonia do it with remarkable ease.
This album marks another giant step in Katatonia's musical evolution. It's an absolutely killer record, which experiments with new sounds completely successfully, and reveals a new musical layer with each listen. In 2016 you can't afford to be without this album!