new Katatonia album..........

hahaha, well you did explain yourself, which is something i neglected to do. I agree with your assessment of both D.O and T.D. That 'warm, fuzzy' feeling you describe to me is almost like a flickering of flame that kind of 'surrounds' the tunes. It's calming, as well as unnerving. T.D is more 'cold', detached, like you said, and it sends chills up your spine. LFDGD has a bleak, hopeless, 'greenish' kind of sound to it, while V.E just has that oppressive, ultra cloudy day/hangover(non-alcholic) vibe going on - the calm before the storm. it's their most disquieting release in a number of ways, because the dread/anxiety is forever looming, and the cavalcade of distortion almost serves as temporary relief. I might just be talking shit, but that's what i feel AND see whenever i listen to those albums. TGCD, on the other hand, doesn't make me see red, and maybe it's because it isn't an evocative shade of red. And it's not at all assisted by that cliched depiction of a grieving man. Surely veteran gloom merchants like Katatonia are capable of more imaginative artwork than a man slapping his dome?

You mentioned this in your Terrorizer review of their last album i believe, but i'm unsure exactly what you mean, as 'Discouraged Ones' was the start of the 'melodic stuff'. Do you mean those melodies with bigger choruses, and a greater emphasis on melodic vocal structure in the verses? anyway, as far as my own opinion is concerned, their only great abum this decade is 'Viva Emptiness', because it's the most varied in terms of texture and structure. It's also their heaviest. 'Last Fair Deal Gone Down' is good too--hated it at first though, just couldn't accept the change--but it's essentially a transitional point IMO. Not to reduce it to that necessarily, but it certainly occupies that place within their discography. In your review of 'The Great Cold Distance' you also referred to 'Brave Murder Day' as a 'singular achievement', or something along those lines, and i must agree. Nobody has produced anything like it since, not even Katatonia. I rarely listen to it anymore, but artistically speaking, it's definitely in a league of its own. That steely/brittle guitar sound against those measured, but stately, tempos, and those repetitive, minimalist, trance inducing riffs and melodies. It floored me at the time. Oh and that cover art too, perfectly reflects the music. TGCD is the only Katatonia album since BMD where the cover art is not reflected in the music itself. When i listen to TGCD, i do not see red. The lesson here folks is that in Katatonia's case, it's entirely appropriate to judge a book by its cover.