The Masters of melancholic metal, Katatonia, are back to carry on their legacy of rearranging the order of the heavy music universe, with their brand new studio album Sky Void of Stars!

Founded in 1991, Katatonia have continually embraced the dark and the light alike and – living through various genre evaluations they brought in their own particular form of expression with their previous album. City Burials (2020), ranking #6 on the German album charts. But now it’s 2023 and they’re back with a brand new album and eleven brand new tracks.

Kicking it off with the first track of the album, is Austerity if you’re a fan of the OG goth era with bands like Depeche Mode this track brings you right back to that time. The electronic vibes, with slow echoey vocals playing throughout, with the hints of heavy drum beats blending everything together. It’s like you should be in a rave, moshing with fellow metal heads. Half way through with an insane guitar riff to really bring in the metal feel to the song. I could even say it’s like having Depeche Mode with Corey Taylor from Slipknot’s vocals.

The ending of Austeritymerges pretty much perfectly into track two Colossal Shade. Deep echoey vocals, with a beautiful guitar and Bass it’s like its merged early 2000s hip hop beats as guitars. Still with the usual feel of electronic with dark and gloomy vocals. Bring the OG goths back!

Going in with a completely different feel for track 3, Opaline starts with brass trumpets very slow with some electric thrown in, the tempo has really gone down with this third track. Everything is smooth, and relaxed but every lyric is deep and meaningful and relatable to heartache. The vibes never change, it’s flowy, it’s deep and hypnotising. With a slight pick up during the chorus with some more to the tempo and added guitar, before bringing everything right back down.

A beautiful track about heartache, feeling weightless going through life.

Sack the electronics off for a second and let’s bring in some fast paced high pitched guitars to kick off Birds.  Heavy drums to back the deep vocals which are no longer echoey, One thing to say about this album for sure is that all the tracks despite their differences, do have massive similarities at the same time. At times I would even compare this to a missile launch, the backing track merged with the guitars and bass brings in intense feel to the track that feels like a countdown.

Within the first two seconds of Drab Moon you’re expecting 90s rave, but within an instant everything changes, low slow guitar, everything has slowed down and it’s deep, it’s depressing, it’s eerie. For a track about spiralling down, the beats carrying the song feel like you’re on a slow river heading for the downfall, with a faster drop coming along midway through it like the brain of an anxious and depressed person coming to life.

Low and easy intro brings you into Author, into deep electronic keyboards giving a slow, intense gothic feel to the track already. Compared to the previous tracks the vocals have changed massively, already showing the depth this band can go to. Higher vocals instead of deep and broody, matching the pitch of the keyboard perfectly, with deep bass throwing itself mid track. If I had to compare the genre switches perfectly enough, I would match it to an electronic version of Sleep Token. Every track on this album makes you feel like you’re in a bubble surrounded by chaos merged with every thought you’ve ever had in your head.

The intro to Impermanence is already making me feel like I’ve stepped into a gothic mansion, with deep guitar riffs my brain goes to walking around a black mansion in a gothic heaven. With the deep but high vocals being brought in, it makes you feel like you’re suddenly on the top of a building shouting out every emotion known to man into the sky. The passion and the emotion in his voice is insanely beautiful the way it merges in. Again slower compared to many others on the album, but to have this in the middle it’s perfect where it is.

With a dramatic and gorgeous end to the track, with pure guitar and no vocals it keeps the dramatics alive.  

Sclera has a slow build up, but it’s intense like you’re waiting to meet the main character of a tv show, it’s a song that would be fitting for showing the plot lines of a pilot of a drama. Everything is slow and flat but amplified. The background symbols really bring the song together as a simple addition to the song, it makes the track feel like a calling.

Are you ready to feel like you’re preparing for a battle? Atrium starts off slow with a low guitar build up, before completely switching sounds and everything becomes more dance inducing, parts of the track feels like the band got inspiration from Mary on a Cross by Ghost.

The final two tracks on the album No Beacon To Illuminate Our Fall shows the album slowing down as it comes to an end, these are also the longest tracks on the album, making the feeling last. But like the previous tracks the slow never lasts, everything builds up No Beacon To Illuminate Our Fall throws us straight into a filthy breakdown something different from the previous tracks, showing the more modern heavy metal aspects of the album, before bringing it back down again.

Abscondercomes in quick with drums and nice guitar riffs, the bass making you move your head to the beat as this flows through you, as the vocals hit everything comes to a halt and it feels like a completely different song comes through for a second, before we’re back to the start its like a pause button has been put on the start of the track, and its being repeated every 15 seconds. Overall a solid ending to this 11 track album from Katatonia.

Overall if this album is solid and perfect for anyone that’s a fan of bands like Depeche Mode, Slipknot and Sunscreen without a doubt. It’s one for the original goths of the world, taking you right back into the 80s and 90s goth rave scene. The only fault that I could find, is a lot of the tracks on the album are very similar, there isn’t very much variety, but you can throw yourself into a different world with each one at the same time, they are different but at the same time also very similar; think of this as a movie and each track shows a different scene. The vocals that come from Jonas Renkse really sell it; the different ways he changes his voice can sometimes make you think it’s a different vocalist.

Overall rating 6/10

Reviewed by Lauren Allard.

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