Katatonia - Dance of December Souls Review

Hi everybody! As time marches on, we sometimes forget those who’ve paved the way for us. Not just in the realms of music, but in movies & tv shows, anime & manga, comic books, and many other pop culture fixtures. Sometimes we forget things because they were horrible, or we forget because they haven’t necessarily kept up with the times. Well, in today’s case, it’s the latter. Without further ado, and to celebrate the coming of December, here’s a review for Katatonia’s first album, Dance of December Souls.

Although this album was reprinted a couple times, and has been given new material, for the purpose of this review I’ll be sticking with the original lineup of songs, so as not to confuse anyone who hasn’t listened to the album yet.

Background

(Original Cover)

(2004 Re-Release)

(2007 Re-Release)

There have been many bands in the late 80s to early 90s who’ve dabbled in the realms of death, doom, and gothic metal, but none have been as iconic as Katatonia. First formed 1991, the lineup consisted of Jonas Renkse (drums, percussion, vocals), Anders Nyström (guitars), Guillaume Le Huche (bass guitar), and Dan Swanö (A guest at the time, who worked on the keyboard). In the early 90s, bands such as My Dying Bride, Anathema, and Paradise Lost were also producing death/doom metal, and with some success, but it was Katatonia that came to produce some truly unique sounds.

Before Dance of December Souls, the band released Jhva Elohim Meth (Translated: God is Dead) on July of 1992, a very limited demo album (Only 500 copies were made: 300 were blue-cased, 100 were transparent-cased, and another 100 were red-cased. In an even more limited quantity, the first 30 copies had photos & lyrics) that showed off their work, right before the album. After the success of the demo, Katatonia began to work on their first album.

I should note that Dance of December Souls has actually been re-released a couple times. The first edition came out on December 14, 1993, and it was later released in the US in 1999 without alterations, but it also got a reissue in 2004 with all-new artwork (The band stated on their website that they didn’t like this copy for personal reasons), another re-release in 2007 with a blue version of the cover (The original cover was red) & all five songs from their demo album, and a final re-release on double vinyl in 2010.

Songs
Seven Dreaming Souls (Intro): Despite being 46 seconds long, Seven Dreaming Souls is a great way to start out. Although there’s no singing in this song, there’s definitely a lot of screams & moans that create a very sinister vibe, not to mention some equally dark usage of the keyboard. Again, great song to start the album off.

Gateways of Bereavement: This is a song that’s very much in flux. All throughout the song, we get singing, instrumentation, singing, etc. I actually don’t like the singing in this, as I can’t understand most of the lyrics, apart from a few words. The real strength of this song is it’s usage of instrumentation: we’ve got heavy & haunting guitars, we’ve got powerful drumming, and there’s even a little bit of elegant keyboarding. If there weren’t any lyrics, this would have been an amazing song. Such as it is, it’s just a nice song.

In Silence Enshrined: This song is a little bit different that Gates of Bereavement. The vocals are a little easier to understand (Though not by much), and the instrumentation this time around seems to be focused more on the guitars and drums, and the keyboard is used a little more sparingly (It shows up about halfway through the song, and is used on & off from there). Strangely, In Silence Enshrined seems to move along at a slightly faster pace than the previous track (Especially at the 3/4th point in the song), yet for some reason still manages to have a steady sound.

Without God: I can say, without a shadow of doubt, that this song has the easiest lyrics to hear. Sure, Jonas Renkse still screams a lot of the time, but in this song he seems to be doing it a lot more clearly. I can also say that this is a highly heretical song, as Renkse’s singing about a world without god. Strangely, there’s very little keyboard in this, apart from some being used in the middle & 3/4th points of the song. Instead, this song is focused solely on the guitars & drums, both of which put in a lot of overtime.

Elohim Meth: Another audio track, but this one is a bit different when you compare it to Seven Dreaming Souls. Unlike that song, this one is longer (1 minute & 42 second), and doesn’t focus on the keyboard as much. Instead, we’re given a mix between guitar & keyboard, both of which are played very sorrowfully. At around the halfway point, the sound of gentle rain & light thunder add a rather melancholic feel to the sorrow, creating a surprisingly emotional song.

Velvet Thorns (of Drynwhyl): Holy crap, this song is long! Clocking in at almost 14 minutes, this is one of the longest songs on the album (Tomb of Insomnia is the 2nd biggest song, but I’ll get to that in a bit). Because of it’s length, there’s a lot more going on in it when you compare it to the songs before it. Tragically, the vocal quality also sinks back a bit, and almost sounds like what was sung on In Silence Enshrined. However, Velvet Thorns shares Gateways of Bereavement’s strength in it’s instrumentation, and everybody’s on deck. We got the guitars, as well as the drums playing fast & slow, and we also have the keyboard that provides us with some lovely sounds. Again, like Gateways of Bereavement, this would have been amazing if there weren’t any lyrics.

Tomb of Insomnia: Like I said in the previous song, Tomb of Insomnia is the second biggest track on the album, measuring in at 13 minutes & 10 seconds. Tomb of Insomnia also happens to be one of the strangest songs on Dance of December Souls, as a majority of it sounds like a metal song from the late 80s. This is really evident in the instrumentation, as it focuses heavily on guitars, with a good supplement of drums, and a little bit of keyboard to add some variety to it. Yet again, the vocals ruin what is an otherwise perfect song, as I can barely understand them.

Dancing December: We began this album with an audio song, found another one about halfway through the album, and now we end it on a audio song. Unlike the beginning track, Dancing December is a much longer track (2 minutes & 20 seconds). Also unlike the first track, there’s no-where near as much in the way of dark vibes, instead going for a more ethereal/elemental feeling. The beginning starts off with a slow & melancholy guitar riff, accompanied by some equally melancholic piano playing, and some drum work. Then about halfway through, the pace accelerates, and some beautiful keyboard sounds come through. The rest of this song is relatively fast paced, yet it somehow doesn’t manage to lose the beauty it creates during the first half.

Overall Impression & Rating
It’s definitely understandable why Dance of December Souls has fallen off the radar for many metal fans. Unlike a lot of albums produced in the early 90s by other death/doom/gothic metal bands (Particularly, depending on who you ask, Paradise Lost’s classic album, Draconian Times), it hasn’t necessarily aged well. In particular are the cliched lyrics, and the instrumentation, which sounds good, but also sounds a little dated. Despite those two problems, Katatonia’s first album is fun to listen to, and I consider it a primer album for anyone who wants to get into the world of metal.

Dance of December Souls gets 5 to 7 out of 10.

See you all later this week, when we’ll take a trip back to Pandora. Until then, stay Otaku!