Review Summary: A beautifully dark symphony of power chords, depressing lyrics, and Mikael Åkerfeldt.
Katatonia are a band whose career could very well be defined by the word "change." Very few bands could have transformed the way Katatonia have over their career and done it so well. It's almost scary to think that a band could go from melodic death/doom metal to alternative metal so seamlessly and smoothly. Of course going from the tormented screams and heavy riffs of Dance of December Souls to the melancholic lyrical style of albums such as The Great Cold Distance required a very gradual change. One album in particular though could be said to have been the pivotal moment in Katatonia's career.
After breaking up and eventually reforming after the recording of their second EP, Katatonia drummer/singer Jonas Renkse and guitarist Anders "Blakkheim" Nyström had many challenges ahead when it came time to record their second full-length album. One of the first came with a new songwriting direction, which saw the slow, doom-laden riffs of the band's previous material replaced with power chord riffs, simple 4/4 drums, and faster tempos. Doing this may not have been a "setback" per se, but it was still a very risky move for the band, so much so that producer Dan Swanö even encouraged the band to make an album more similar in nature to Dance of December Souls. The biggest hurdle the band had to get over arose when the recording of the vocals finally began. Rigorous touring with Katatonia in previous years and the recording of an album with his new band October tide had rendered Jonas Renkse incapable of performing the apathetic shrieks that adorned previous Katatonia material. In the words of guitarist Blakkheim, "We tracked two songs over and over, but it just sounded worse and worse. When the vocals started to sound equal to a yelling bum in the gutter, we called it a day. Jonas' growling abilities had come to a halt." It's safe to say that things were looking a bit bleak for Renkse and Nyström during this album's upbringing. Would the risk of a huge change of style pay off? Would the vocals turn out okay? Would Brave Murder Day be able to live up to the standards set by its predecessor? The answers to all of these are a bit surprising.
In order to avoid the classic sophomore slump, Katatonia had to make the best of their circumstances, and thankfully they were able to do so. As a start, Dan Swanö was demoted from producer to engineer in order to keep the band from being trapped in a creative corner. This allowed the men to write as they pleased, which while risky, would end up being a huge benefit for the album. Also, while it didn't seem so at first, Jonas Renkse's loss of ability to growl was a blessing in disguise. The situation led to the band deciding that someone else needed to record the growls for the album, and this again resulted in one of the best decisions the band could have made. In order to make sure that Brave Murder Day would be vocally adept, the band reached out to their best friend and fellow musician, Mikael Åkerfeldt, who you may know as the vocalist and guitarist of another great Swedish melodic metal band, Opeth. It was then that the magic of Brave Murder Day began to unfold.
One thing that you will immediately notice upon turning this album on is that it sounds NOTHING like Dance of December Souls. The guitar tone is different, the vocals are different, everything is different. The good news is that it is completely for the better. While Dance of December Souls was pretty good overall, it lacked consistency in a lot of places and didn't feel at times like it had enough substance. Brave Murder Day on the other hand, is perfect in this regard. The album is very consistent, having a very distinct sound from front to back, yet still it still varies things up enough to get rid of any repetitive feelings. It has that same magic to it as bands like Opeth, Neurosis, and Gojira, in that while many of the riffs and instrumental sections may go on and repeat for long periods of time, they never feel worn out. Instead, it gives the album a very hypnotic and immersive feeling, almost making it better the longer it goes on for.
The instrumental side of this album is very unique, and is something that only Katatonia could pull off. While this album is usually classified as doom metal, death/doom, or even post-black metal by some, the only thing about this album that really screams "metal" is the vocals. The music is really more hard rock than anything. There are some more "metal-sounding" musical sections on this album, mostly thanks to some double kicking in the right place, but overall, the music alone is not that heavy. It's almost like what Vena Sera era Chevelle would have sounded like had they hired Mikael Åkerfeldt as a lead vocalist.
Speaking of Mikael Åkerfeldt, his vocal performance is easily one of the biggest selling points for this album. This album is more focused on the instrumental side of things, but Mikael definitely is the star performer on here. As usual for him, his growls are monstrously heavy and complement Jonas' bleak lyrics perfectly. They are certainly far better than Jonas' vocals on Dance of December Souls. Speaking of the man formerly known as Lord Seth, he contributes vocals to the album, only instead of foolishly attempting to do his trademark growls, he contributes some of his first clean vocals. For the most part, his vocals are very subtly placed, appearing briefly in songs like "Rainroom" and "Endtime." The album's third song "Day," however, features only clean vocals, but this isn't exactly a good thing. While Jonas would become a very solid clean vocalist on later albums, he would have been better off sitting this one out and leaving the cleans to Mikael. The harmonies on the song are very poorly placed and the whole song is sung very ineptly. You can definitely tell that Jonas was a bit run down when he recorded this song. His vocals sound very strained and tired, which would have been somewhat excusable if he had been trying to hit ridiculously high notes or sing long phrases with only one or two breaths, but with how easy this song is to sing, it's completely inexcusable. Everything else about "Day" is just fine, but the vocals really hold it back from being what it should have been. Thankfully, Jonas' vocals on the rest of the album sound pretty good, and "Day" is really the only moment of this album where things take a dive.
As I mentioned before, the guitar riffs are composed mostly of dark, melodic, mid-tempo power chords, but they add to the depressive atmosphere of the album quite well. There are places on this album where the guitar gets pretty interesting though, namely on the song "Murder," which boasts one of the darkest sounding verses of any Katatonia song ever, along with a pretty nice solo. What really brings this album together though is the writing. As I said earlier, this album is very consistent, but still varied enough to keep things interesting. Each song has it's own identity, and trying to pick favorites can be pretty hard. Whether it's the 10 minute epic "Brave," the chaotic, constantly-changing "12," or the dramatic "Endtime," every song song on this album is great. Even "Day" is a pretty good song overall. Songwriting wise, Brave Murder Day is about as good as it gets.
Brave Murder Day is an absolutely amazing album, but it's not without its faults. I already made clear that the vocal performance on "Day" is a huge chancre sore on the beautiful face of this album, but there are other problems that lie within. For one, the drums can be a bit repetitive at times, due to the lack of many fills or beat changes. The most variation you'll really hear with Jonas' drumming is that sometimes he hits the bass pedal twice instead of once, and he does shift a bit off beat at the end of "Murder." Another small problem is that the bass is practically impossible to hear, which is a shame considering that it will always be a mystery what Blakkheim slapped out for this album. These few small flaws though are really the only problems with this album. And while they are there, they certainly don't completely ruin the album.
Brave Murder Day is definitely one of the best albums in Katatonia's career, and that's saying a lot. Compared to the ten other albums in Katatonia's discography, I personally would say that this album is, at the very least, their third best. While there are minimal flaws in both the production and performance, Brave Murder Day's roaring power chord riffs and vocals make it an absolutely amazing album throughout. Even more importantly, this album nails both consistency and variation, which are really the two most important things you need to make a good album. For an album to be truly great, each song must not only be good, but the album also has to sound good as a whole. Brave Murder Day does just that, which makes it something truly special when combined with the creative instrumentation and depressing lyrics. But Brave Murder Day is more than just a great album by a great band. It's something more, something deeper. It represents determination, and how even when in the worst of situations, hard work and resourcefulness can make for something truly memorable and worth the work that went into it. And that if you can get ahold of Mikael Åkerfeldt, it would be a good idea to do so. Brave Murder Day gets a 4.5/5. It's definitely worth your time to listen to and money to own a copy of. So do as Blakkheim says: "Crank it up, close your eyes and let visions of hanged people drifting up and down in windmills come to you as it came to us." And to you, Jonas Renkse and Anders Nyström, thanks for not giving up.
