Review by Rachel Jablonski
A dark room. Full of furniture. A living room on the main floor. Yet an empty room. Deserted. Late at night. A faintly clouded sky. A bright full moon. Beaming down. The window pane a gateway. To something significant. The way the light hits the room. A beam of light. Revealing a high back armchair. Maroon. Creating dark shadows. In corners. A dim staircase. Leading to another prospect. An elaborate story. Remains to be seen.
This vivid illustration, mental pictures brought about by Katatonia’s Viva Emptiness, comes to me each time I press play. But the account thereafter is not always the same. The painted picture varies from listen to listen allowing for fresh visual imagery with each spin. Katatonia have created an extraordinary album full of calming sounds, great guitar riffs, and smooth vocals lyrically oriented and full of substance.
The dark room becomes immediately apparent to me in “Ghost of the Sun” and thus the story begins.
Throughout the album a distant heavy backdrop alternates with soft, undistorted, and addictive guitar. The musical subtleties allow room for clean, clear, and crisp vocals. Words seem carefully chosen to enhance the distinct image producing sounds. Emotion saturates the music, but the vocals are continually calm and collected. Void of many voice inflections, each song paints analytical thoughts through music and word. There seems to be very little emphasis on vocal note progressions. Yet the melody is there and the vocals flow effortlessly. The vocalist sings the word “fucker” and “fucking” like silk. It slides off his tongue like hot fudge on top of vanilla ice cream and naturally soaks into the song unfaltering. Commonalities such as these exist throughout the album, yet each song exhibits a distinct, intensely descriptive piece of the overall story. The structure creates a theme which, for me, is determined differently each time I hear the album.
“One Year from Now” is one of my favorite tracks combining many elements to create one solid piece. The lyrics consist of a mere six lines, but the passion of the song is long lasting. The song contains three beats per measure with piano and faint strings, sounding like a violin perhaps, programmed and immersed in a calm, steady guitar riff. The result is a powerful mesh of musical magnificence. The sound is very empty, not in substance, but in tone. There is an intermediate break in the song in which distortion, perhaps symbolic of desperation among the emptiness, is presented until the musical calmness again resumes.
The well balanced mix of heavy and subtle guitar, interesting effects, and vibrant lyrics paint a mental picture of an abandoned room with many possible scenarios going on upstairs. At least in my own head. These events are determined with each listen. Dramatic happenings, whether past or present, come alive through the music and the words. Imagined scenes have to be individually script by each careful listener particularly with passionate and unlimited imagination.