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Katatonia: The Longest Year Depressive Rock, Doom Metal Peaceville Records March 15th, 2010
NOTES: - Also comes with the music videos for "TThe Longest Year" and "Day and Then the Shade" as Enhanced CD. Originally posted on March 25th, 2010 | |||
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Review
To further promote the release of Katatonia's eight full-length effort, Night Is the New Day, the band has released a second single for the track "The Longest Year". The Longest Year CD single is your run-of-the-mill four track release that features the title track, as well as three bonus tracks never before released. But, considering two are just remixes, is this release actually worth it? Well, the title track itself is a very impressive song, and obviously the fans of Katatonia already know about it, if not all those people who happen to scoure Youtube and other video streaming services on-line. Aside that track, you get the song "Sold Heart", which doesn't compare at all the beauty of "The Longest Yard", but acts more as a ballad as far as the band's songwriting skills go. The guitars on the track are haunting and can induce a feeling of warm nostalgia against a very repetative bass riff. It's actually pretty obvious why the song wasn't included with Night Is the New Day, but let's not get into that now. Atop of these two songs, you get newly mixed versions of "Day and Then the Shade", as well as "Idle Blood". "Day and Then the Shade (Frank Defaul Remix)" is actually a good song that is actually more powerful then the other tracks, focusing moreso on keyboards for yet another ballad-like track, with some industrial sounding synths thrown in in an effort to build up the song. But, at this point the listener will notice the pattern that each of these songs start slow and build up! They essentially sound exactly the same, with only "Day and Then the Shade" sounding different by dropping down to a slow closing and have it last so long. The only track that doesn't follow this pattern is "Idle Blood (Linje 14)" which features some really annoying industrial synths during the main verses, but manages to make the chorus absolutely breath taking. The Longest Year EP from Katatonia is really only a piece for those who feel this band cannot do any wrong, are O.C.D., or are dedicated to Katatonia no matter what. There's no real diversity on the album, and the two remixed tracks really aren't anything special at all. While the title track is a very well composed song, it's almost as if the band wanted to capitalize upon the success of this track by hammering out two more versions, and simply didn't want to record yet another rendition of this song in any form. The addition of the music videos for "Day and Then the Shade", as well as "The Longest Year" are a nice touch to the release and does raise help in the EP being worth a look. But, sadly, this EP will leave a rather harsh aftertaste in your mouth, so don't expect too much for your hard earned money on this one. It's not utter garbage, but it's still something you could probably avoid all together.
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