With these 3 EPs for The Great Cold Distance, Katatonia begins their dive into electronic elements while illustrating an uncanny quality where the B-sides are just as good, if not better, than the songs from the album they represent. This one in particular is the only one that contains a remix with two extra tracks.
The Opium Dub of My Twin is exactly that: a transcending dub remix of the single re-arranged to give a muffled, far away feel. The addition and subtraction of certain sections of music perfectly attribute the track, making it very worthwhile to check out. The two bonus tracks are some of the band's best songs, though since they didn't fit the flow of The Great Cold Distance, they luckily found an audial home here. Both are mid-paced switching from the quiet to powerful throughout, and feature many ambient qualities that the songs from the main album possess. Fun fact: none of the songs use any keyboard, the band screwed with their effects pedals to create all the sounds from guitars.
Katatonia EPs always seem to be able to stand alone as solid releases because they aren't cheap attempts to make money but rather contain quality tracks that fans would never get otherwise. Luckily for those who enjoyed the latest record so much, there are two more of them coming. The band's trademark riffing style is still evident, but noticeably evolving, and this is one of those stepping stones where you can witness it.
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Chapter 1: Don’t Tell A Soul
I. My Twin
Cold sweat…it doesn’t seem like the dreams are untrue. It doesn’t seem that the visions, or hallucinations, are beyond reality. It is not apparent that this isn’t real because it is real, very much, so much that I can only now notice I cannot stop my whole body from shaking. I will only wake up to the same dream, the benighted delusion that no one has gone. But you…you will never return. The water has placed you above us all. Lamenting only on the fact that “good and evil are one and the same thing, by which we savagely bear witness to our impotence and our passion to attain the infinite, even by the most insensate means.”
II. Opium Dub
The neck…and then the chain. The head is hung in shame.
The neck…and then the chain. The head is hung in shame.
The neck…and then the chain. The head is hung in shame.
I know I said I would be there, but your wish was something else, and many times we said forever, death believes we are untrue.
III. Displaced
It’s morning. This feels like the last day I will see her, and we’re driving back to her old house. She is smiling more than usual, though I don’t know if it’s a mask…We have actually been talking a lot of the way…she must be happy, she’s laughing a lot. She laughs with her whole body, as if she hadn’t a care in her mind. And yet I am out of place, I can sense a darkness coming. I made it so easy for you when you came to me, for your safety, and recalling the one time when we were abroad, when I was laughing at a book I had bought, but you were standing against the hotel wall, frozen in an unknown thought. Re-Silence.
IV. Dissolving Bonds
The next day I awoke with a knife to my throat, just breaking skin. I jumped up to fight off the aggressor swiping my arms until I realized in my right hand laid the knife itself. Pushing the event to the back of my head, I walk out to the living room to see her clutching a pillow with an emotionless, yet determined look on her face. Before I can put my arms around her she outstretches her arm, unfurls her fist, revealing the ring. The sound of bells, inanimate heart, blackout.
