- Country: Sweden
- Style: Progressive metal
- Label: Napalm Records
- Release date: 20 January 2023
Album number twelve, and the first one Katatonia have put out through Napalm Records. Like City Burials before it, every song here was written by Jonas Renkse alone, and Jacob Hansen, who mixed and mastered the record, also had a hand in the production this time. The result is noticeably more guitar-driven than its predecessor.
“Austerity” opens with restless, twisting riffs, and “Colossal Shade” borrows a bit of Kiss swagger from the Lick It Up days and bends it into Katatonia shape. “Opaline” is the slow-burning heart of the record, while Soen singer Joel Ekelöf joins Renkse on the fragile “Impermanence”, the track that leans closest to the band’s old doom roots.
Nothing on here shouts. It glows, quietly and darkly, and keeps pulling you back. The title comes from a line in “Author”. Fitting, because few bands write this convincingly about drifting without direction.
Best tracks:
Austerity
Colossal Shade
Opaline
Impermanence
Author’s rating: 8.6/10
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