{"id":6675,"date":"2012-08-27T00:00:51","date_gmt":"2012-08-27T00:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=6675"},"modified":"2013-06-01T14:27:31","modified_gmt":"2013-06-01T14:27:31","slug":"album-review-katatonia-dead-end-kings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-katatonia-dead-end-kings\/","title":{"rendered":"KATATONIA – Dead End Kings (2012) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

KATATONIA
Dead End Kings<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nPeaceville (2012)<\/span>
Rating: 6.5\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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While early Katatonia works launched the seedy underground sound the band is known for (along with My Dying Bride and Anathema), it\u2019s their more melancholy, rock inspired sound that has dominated the Swedish band\u2019s output in the new millennium.<\/p>\n

While it still seems to be something that divides the group\u2019s fanbase, it was 2003\u2019s Viva Emptiness<\/em> that staked this assortment\u2019s claim as one of the best on their side of the world and they have perfected that vein of music in the years since its release. <\/p>\n

\u2018The Parting\u2019 kicks off the melancholy festivities here in a big way. Backed by heavy guitars, strings, a very subtle piano, and one of Jonas Renkse\u2019s most impactful vocal performances ever, the band command the song entirely, practically forcing you to be believe no matter which era of the band you prefer. The good news is that this song alone is worth the price of admission. The bad news is, while the album as a whole is good, it never again reaches this pinnacle.<\/p>\n

\u2018The One You Are Looking For is Not Here\u2019 attempts to keep the momentum but, for me, the power of the kick off still lingers and this song just feels like a leftover. The string-laden, laid back sound of \u2018Leech\u2019 is a good moment, largely due to the creative drumming by Daniel Liljekvist. It really stands as the song\u2019s backbone without overpowering everything else. That said, it\u2019s a great lead into \u2018Ambitions\u2019, which is the other main highlight of Dead End Kings<\/em>. It\u2019s got that underlying upbeat spark that the band has honed so well over the last decade, while keeping it heavy in all the right places and maintaining that vocal intimacy that Renkse has pretty much mastered at this point. <\/p>\n

\u2018Dead Letters\u2019 is a little more dynamic than the rest of the album, bringing it all to an end in a fairly progressive way. The keyboards (by Frank Default) play a more prominent role here and the musical style shifts back and forth often, which gives it a little prog feel that is a nice change of pace. When it rocks, it rocks just a little bit harder than the other songs as well. As far as musically interesting goes, the endcaps on Dead End Kings<\/em> definitely take the cake.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, there are a lot of songs that sound the same here as well. \u2018Hypnone\u2019, \u2018Undo You\u2019 and \u2018Buildings\u2019, for example are all songs that are completely enjoyable but after a few spins they just start to blend into the album so much that you don\u2019t even really notice that the band is playing something entirely different. Some fans may enjoy that aspect of the album, but it doesn\u2019t do so much for me. <\/p>\n

While I don\u2019t really dislike anything on here, the fact remains that Katatonia have done this all before… a few times. While this album won\u2019t leave you disappointed necessarily, it will likely leave you hoping for something a bit more next time. Katatonia are such a powerful force that you can\u2019t help but feel that they are due for an evolution when listening to this. That said, if you have enjoyed their last few albums and are hungry for more of that sound, Dead End Kings<\/em> will give you plenty more of it.<\/p>\n

Mark Fisher<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KATATONIADead End Kings Peaceville (2012)Rating: 6.5\/10 While early Katatonia works launched the seedy underground sound the band is known for (along with My Dying Bride and Anathema), it\u2019s their more melancholy, rock inspired sound that has dominated the Swedish band\u2019s output in the new millennium. While it still seems to be something that divides the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,334],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-katatonia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6675"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6675\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12030,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6675\/revisions\/12030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}