Katatonia - Brave Murder Day Review

Artist: Katatonia Album: Brave Murder Day Genre: Doom/death metal

Tracklist: 1. Brave (10:16) 2. Murder (04:54) 3. Day (04:28) 4. Rainroom (06:31) 5. 12 (08:18) 6. Endtime (06:45)

Sound: 10 The production fits perfectly, the overall mood in this album is a one of a kind. If you want something that feels depressed and almost empty, this album is perfect if you're into metal. The melancholic sound of this album is matched by noone, at least nothing I've heard.

Guitars: 10 Yes. The guitars are flaweless. Even a beginner who has only played for about a month would probably be able to play everything on this album, including the super simple tapped part in "Brave". But you don't need anything more technical than this, you can get really far with just spamming the same power chord for really long.

Bass: 7 Since the pass mostly plays the same as the guitar, it's good but nothing super, except the fact that the guitars are amazing. I wouldn't mind having it a bit higher in the mix though, but that's all I can complain on.

Drums: 9 The drums fits perfectly, and I can't really analyze the drums better than that. There's one problem though, it's that they used a drum machine instead of letting Jonas play drums, something I really don't understand why they would do. However, it sounds good even though it's the way it is, so I won't complain that much.

Vocals: 10 When they recorded this album, Jonas Renkse, their vocalist had lost the abillity to growl, so they had to call Mikael Åkerfeldt to do the vocals, something I am very glad happened. Don't get me wrong, Lord Seth was amazing on Dance of December souls, I wouldn't trade his vocals on that record for anybody else's, but Åkerfeldt's vocals fits perfectly on this record. He doesn't sound close to how he usuually sounds, it's more melancholic and fits perfectly with the mood of the entire record. It really shows how diverse Åkerfeldt is when it comes to doing vocals. Jonas uses his clean voice a bit on this record aswell, and since I consider him as one of my favourite vocalists for clean singing, this is northing short of perfect vocal wise. The song on "Day" is really.. Perfect, I know it might sound a bit fanboyish, but I truly think that it is. He is definetly not the most technical singer out there, but it fits the mood perfectly, just as Åkerfeldt's growls do.

Lyrics: 10 Some of the best lyrics ever written are on this album, once again it's quite simple, but it captures the mood perfectly, like everything else on this record.

1. Brave

If you didn't know All the moments When I lose myself I would tell the world I'm catching flies by now Speaking to someone Breaking the windows This house is dead

The sound of falling When the pictures are moving Between the memories

The sound of falling When the pictures are moving Dead in time

Brave, try the meaning of loss I know your smile is deadly at this point Wherever you are I am not

If you didn't know All the moments When I lose myself I would tell the world I guess I should know The limits of the world There are moments I find myself Not breathing at all

Overall impression: 10 This is one of my favourite albums. I haven't heard any album that's better than this, but there are some others that I like as much as this.