DETHRONED & UNCROWNED

"Dethroned & Uncrowned" is the 10th full-length studio album by Swedish metal act Katatonia. The album is the first Katatonia release to be released through Kscope instead of Peaceville Records, which is the label that has released all their preceeding releases. "Dethroned & Uncrowned" was released in September 2013.

The album is not as such a new studio release with original material but rather a semi-acoustic version of their last studio album "Dead End Kings (2012)". The two albums feature the exact same tracklist. While the basic vocal melodies and track structures are the same, the arrangements of the tracks are very different on the two albums. Almost all distorted guitars and heavy drumming are removed from "Dethroned & Uncrowned" and instead acoustic guitars and soft orchestral backdrops are the order of the day. Apparently this is how the band initially imagined "Dead End Kings (2012)", but they changed their mind along the way.

The more subtle and mellow arrangements of the tracks work well for the most part. Tracks like "The Parting", "The One You Are Looking for Is Not Here" (which features Silje Wergeland from The Gathering on guest vocals), "Hypnone", "Buildings", and "Ambitions" are some of the tracks where the new arrangements work pretty well, but there are some of the other tracks, which didn´t stand out on "Dead End Kings (2012)" either, that don´t work as well. Not because of the arrangements but it simply becomes even more apparent in these more stripped down arrangements, that the vocal melodies just aren´t that memorable on those tracks. It´s a bit more disguised in the more busy and heavy arrangements on "Dead End Kings (2012)", but here the naked truth is revealed.

The melancholic and paatos filled vocals by Jonas Renkse are as always one of the highlights when listening to a Katatonia release but the new arrangements of the tracks genereally work well too. In that respect Katatonia pull it off with great skill and conviction. The album features an organic and well sounding production and "Dethroned & Uncrowned" is overall a very pleasant, atmospheric, and melancholic release by Katatonia. As an experiment it works well, but I could have wished they would have chosen to write a whole new set of songs and arrange them in this way instead of re-arranging existing tracks. A project like that would probably have been slightly more interesting. Still a 3.5 star (70%) rating is fully deserved.