CITY BURIALS

"City Burials" is the 12th full-length studio album by Swedish metal act Katatonia. The album was released through Peaceville Records in April 2020. It´s the successor to "The Fall Of Hearts" from 2016 and features the same lineup who recorded the predecessor. Katatonia have a long history of changing their sound and musical style. They started out playing death/doom metal, then toyed with goth/alternative rock/metal, then started playing hard edged riffs and rhythms again, and then for a period mellowed out a bit more, although their music still featured heavy riffs and rhythms. They´ve had a relatively consistent sound on the last couple of releases though...

...and on "City Burials" they pretty much continue down that same melancholic heavy alternative rock/metal path they´ve also travelled on the last couple of releases. It´s the trademark sound of Katatonia, with dynamic use of mellow melancholic sections and heavy riff oriented sections with Jonas Renkse´s soft, emotional, and melancholic vocals and lyrics on top. It´s as bleak and melancholic as ever (ok, maybe not quite as bleak, but just as melancholic) but it´s unfortunately also a little too much by the numbers. There´s nothing wrong with the quality of the songwriting, the musicianship, or the very well sounding production job, but "City Burials" is Katatonia playing it completely safe, and I had hoped that the adventurous souls of the two mainmen behind the band Renkse and Anders Nyström (guitars, keyboards, and backing vocals) had felt the urge to try something different again. Twist their sound in a new direction and not just release another similar sounding album to the last couple of releases.

Alas "City Burials" is more of the same, and maybe that´s perfectly fine for some listeners, but I´ve come to a point where I´ve begun to find it all a bit tedious, and my alarm bells are starting to sound loud and clear that Katatonia have completely stagnated. It´s probably one of the worst critiques you can give an artist, but I´m afraid it´s warranted here. Very few artists have survived making the same album over and over again and I hope Katatonia realise that change is needed for the next album. But for all my disappointment and an attention which wanders while listening to the album, it is as mentioned above still a quality release, and it´s mostly in the context of the band´s discography that "City Burials" disappoints. Katatonia are still able to make some of the most heartfelt, melancholic, and darkly beautiful music on the scene and they do occasionally shine on "City Burials" ("Behind the Blood" is one of the highlights, as it´s a bit different from what we´re used to hear from the band). A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives)

Swedish rockers Katatonia deliver a striking collection of melancholic and atmospheric art rock songs on their eleventh studio release - 2020's 'City Burials', the band's first album after their short 2018-19 hiatus. The brainchild of band leader Jonas Renkse, this haunting album has to be not only one of their most experimental and sonically enticing outputs, but also one of the most finely produced and modern-sounding offerings from Katatonia's already broad catalogue. Each of the eleven songs on this excellent studio album contribute to the overall gripping darkness that encapsulates 'City Burials', also solidifying the impressions one might get from the starkly unsettling but absolutely gorgeous album art photography, which happens to be the work of the very talented Lasse Hoile, known for his work with Steven Wilson over the years.

Quite elegant in its sound, 'City Burials' impresses with the majestic use of the keyboards, the prevalent (and occasionally exotic) ambience and the unnerving electronic sensibility, all of these aspects contributing to the very gloomy but enticing audio treat that is unfolding before the listener. A drastic departure from the more stripped-down rock attitude of its predecessor, 2016's 'The Fall of Hearts', it seems like Katatonia have really taken their time to reflect upon what the band could do more in terms of songwriting, and how they could expand the scope of their music, making 'City Burials' a very bold move that signifies how truly progressive the Swedes still are.

Not a single poor composition here, each one of the forty-eight minutes of this record is wisely used, resulting in one of the most focused rock albums of the year. Opener 'Heart Set to Divide' is a very strong rocker that might serve as a link between the band's previous release and this new one, as it sets a grim tone for the rest of the album. 'Behind the Blood', on the other hand, impresses with the swiveling guitars and the almost-tribal drum sounds. The band follow this up with 'Lacquer', another phenomenal song, that almost has an art-pop edge, then comes 'Rein', one of the heavier songs on 'City Burials' and one of the strongest choruses, too. Just four songs in, and the album is already severely impressive - the atmosphere, the variety, the lyrics, and the songwriting, all on a very high level. Other highlights are certainly 'The Winter of Our Passing', 'Flicker' and 'Neon Epitaph', but as it was mentioned before, each song on this album is just too good.

'City Burials' is very innovative, very far-reaching and forward-thinking, very emotional and quite well-written, or in a word, excellent. It might a couple of years, or maybe even a decade or so, for this album to truly be appreciated for what it is, but Katatonia have certainly achieved something special here, as this should rank among their best works, as this beautiful dark record is highly recommended!