With the second EP from The Great Cold Distance, Katatonia induces a darker and mysterious aura for the runtime, experimenting with the idea that you can take a single along with the extra songs that missed the album’s cut and introduce a whole new mood to give further interpretations of their own sounds. Though, it’s still easy to recognize similar elements between this and the album.
Deliberation is one of the simplest tunes the band has written, aside from the interlude, and turned out to be a fan favorite due to its to-the-point verse rhythms and less abrasive, but inceptive tone. The video for the track warrants explanation, however, because of its off-color format and questionable placement of weird “figures” and comes across more strange than enjoyable.
The remix and bonus track are interesting however. The In The White remix is very hollow, replacing all clean guitars with acoustic guitars, dumming down the drums, and once again adding extra sections. The drums are simplified, yes, but work as so in a way to incorporate multiple crescendos throughout because of the increase or absence in playing. The only change with the vocals is the addition of the white noise effect during the interlude. Code Against The Code, on the other hand, is a left-field track from the band. The rhythm guitar creates the pulse with its on-off chords that is looped throughout the whole song as if the band wrote a bunch of parts around this one and couldn’t figure out which they liked best so just mixed them together. Jonas’ vocals are still as simple as on The Great Cold Distance, which bored some people, but maintain a certain demanding feature if you’re getting into the songs.
This is the middle ground of the three EPs where they lose a bit of the intensity from My Twin but add more soliloquy and atmosphere, continuing a noticeable trend where the band is aching to experiment with the many ideas they have in their minds for getting across negative emotions, something they’ve been doing their whole career, but just now has become more involved in design.
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Chapter 2: Tonight’s Music
I. Deliberation
Back in his house, it wasn’t terror that gripped him…no, it was acceptance. It was a memory, it was retraction, it was hallucination, but it was all there in his head and in this room, floating around like snow, quiet swirls of breath waiting to be stopped for these inhuman crimes. Still the choir faintly hovering on that same note…damn this sound, for it shall remain with this memory. He cannot stay in this room any longer. Down the stairs of this plain house there is a vast window gazing out to the lake. The light shines in, bordered by the outlines and shading the most delicate corners of his face. There was fog…it’s splitting with the breeze…there is a girl lying naked on the lake…Is she dead? …There’s a sense of twilight in the room for which she is the beacon. The fog begins to collapse into itself, and a sharp blue light has penetrated it to save her. And then everything was gone. There was no fog, and there were no stars.
II. In The White (Urban Dub)
It was November, over a year has since passed. Before I could have just said that this mournful, empty approach to a sort of life was acceptable, and now it only seems so because I can feel that she is near and she is searching for something. If I can’t imagine any reunion I cannot face anyone, but so long have I yearned to enjoy another night, but it isn’t so, not yet. To overcome this I become one with the quiet cold of late November, and if you don't see, I'll remain unseen, until there's time to be remembered. Walking, the lights on these streets are hypnotizing…but there is a lighter shadow in the darkness beyond the snowfall…
So I found you, found a way all through the quiet cold of inner darkness. And now that you're here, it becomes so clear, I have waited for you always.
III. Code Against The Code
Tonight there is more snow than tears. It might be a good night. The air is quiet, the sky is black, and the stars are beacons for those who walk the nights away…and there one goes. Passing slowly through scattered streetlights without a care in the world…or perhaps more than our nightmares held. He passed by a shivering stray; the poor dog looked starved. He howled once…twice…lost faith for a third, and trudged back into the alley. A large crash came from the same alley, though it must have been the dog…but that scream is human. Rushing over I saw a man stealing a woman’s purse, forcing the woman on the ground vehemently trying to push his hand up her dress with a gun in the other hand. I screamed at him to stop, and he replied by cocking his gun and repeating my command. I dashed toward him while he took a shot, hitting my right arm, but I could not let it phase me as I grabbed his face and smashed it against the brick wall over and over until his head was half the size. Blood trailed everywhere in all shapes and patterns, and then the woman finally stopped screaming, still silently crying. She slowly sauntered through the shadows towards me, the light broke her identity once she reached closer…I couldn’t believe it was her…”Hello” was all she could muster.
