Discouraged Ones

Oh my, this album is hollow. Those mumbling, sedated vocals, the compulsive scratching of monotonous guitar riffs, and a general feeling of floating miles away from what's really going on make Discouraged Ones a bleak and aching experience. Honestly, sometimes it's difficult to listen to this album: if you're feeling energetic or optimistic, avoid it like the plague. On the other hand, it's great mood music for any state of fragility, despair, or tiredness. Katatonia never made the mistake of some bands who just wallow in self-pity, so the little glimmers of hope that pop up in unexpected places make this more soothing than depressing, in my opinion. That weird chorus in 'Relention' - "I'm returning from something, to something, to something" - is at once a message of defeat and submission, but it also seems like a relief, an escape from the numbness that pervades most of the album. I would liken Discouraged Ones to an exhausted man who has spent years lost and alone just finding his old neighbourhood and realising that everything is changed and somehow familiar.

Like every other Katatonia album, this one isn't like any other Katatonia album. It shares the repetitive riffing style of Brave Murder Day, though the stately baroque references are gone (especially noticeable in the lyrics) along with the gothic and doom arabesques that decorated the 6 long songs on that release. It begs the question of whether Discouraged Ones is a doom album and I would answer with a resounding no. The guitar tone is arguably heavier than before, yet in the same way that Nirvana had a heavier guitar tone than Iron Maiden - the style is much simpler and arguably not metallic at all. If there were a prozac nation, Katatonia would have scored hit single after hit single with this album. The vocals are soft and often not fully enunciated, so that one gets the impression Jonas Renkse doesn't want to be heard, which is understandable given that his harsh voice had completely given out a couple of years earlier. That feebleness gives the album a lot of its character and the exhaustion of mental suffering really comes through, which I believe would never have happened with Mikael Akerfeldt or Renkse providing harsh vocals again.

The songs work like fairly conventional rock songs, a few exceptions aside. None last much above 5 minutes and choruses are abundant, while solos are not, only appearing in the last 2 songs, including the shittily-named 'Instrumental'. The drums are totally numb for a large part of Discouraged Ones, keeping time in a manner that really is catatonic - just slow, instinctive breaths. They do show some life in the paralytic crawl of 'Distrust', which is my personal favourite song here, with its snappy fills and elegiac chorus, plus the surprise ending is a great trick. The bass doesn't get a lot of use, since the guitars often require it to follow obediently and not interrupt any of the counter melodies that Anders Nyström delivers with an ear that's all his own. The riffs on this album have been described as repetitive and shoegazing, but there are plenty of examples of variety on songs like 'Cold Ways' and 'Nerve', which sometimes even have an industrial flavour to them, in the vein of Godflesh's Streetcleaner, though not so jarringly heavy.

My general impression of the album is good, though it is slightly overshadowed by the mood of many of the songs. 'Gone' is the only track that really deviates from the norm of melancholic riffs and chorus, but it's not very memorable or appealing, sounding too empty and desperate to warrant repeated listens. 'Deadhouse' is probably the most well-known Katatonia song from Discouraged Ones and it's certainly one of the better cuts, alongside 'Saw You Drown' and 'Distrust'. It has those slow, depressed verses that crop up a lot here, then the chorus is bittersweet with uplifting guitars and more hopelessness lyrically. The lyrics were transitional at this point, leaving behind the earlier romanticism and more generic doom metal themes for personal topics, though Renkse hadn't really nailed his storytelling style, tending to narrate internally rather than in the city environment he would later refer to. There are hints of the poetic familiarity to come, like on 'Deadhouse', where "headlights fuck the city", and the creepy 'Nerve'.

Overall, another distinctive Katatonia album, though not the one that you'll be playing most frequently. However, Discouraged Ones is arguably the closest the band ever got to sounding truly catatonic.

Whatever your opinion on Katatonia’s softer direction, you cannot possibly say that this change was expected. Brave Murder Day showed the band moving away from their blackened doom roots into more melodic and melancholic territories whilst the Saw You Drown release saw the band drop all semblance of extreme metal together in favor of a stripped down, atmospheric yet still incredibly gloomy alternative rock approach. Discouraged Ones is the first full length from Katatonia that shows their alternative direction in its fullest. Far removed from the metallic hymns of Brave Murder Day or the trudging lifeless dirges of Dance of December Souls, Discouraged Ones is one of the first steps into radio friendly territory, and yet whilst this lacks the raw atmospheric intensity of their two previous albums Discouraged Ones is a highly emotional album and one that I strongly urge all readers to listen to.

Perhaps the best way to describe Discouraged Ones is soft doom metal. The opening riff of Stalemate is suitably doomy and dreary and packs a lot of emotional impact. The essence of the doom genre has been a constant within Katatonia’s sound and whilst the band has mellowed out in favor of a more depressive rock approach the atmosphere has remained consistent. The musicianship in itself is significantly doomy, with songs being slow-mid paced with hopeless vocals and languid, perhaps almost droning guitar lines. The melodies themselves are very simple, with Katatonia creating only a small handful of melodies for each song. Jonas Renkse presents a more refined and more mature vocal approach than that of Saw Your Drown yet he still sounds suitably depressed and hopeless. His vocals carry an air of world weariness and hopelessness, his voice drones on with very little variation between tempo, pitch or intonation. His highly simplistic vocal approach works well, with the song Gone being a notable highlight where his vocals enter into a new territory altogether as he sounds completely tired and worn out of the toils of everyday life. Mixed in with the simplistic yet poignant lyrics and Discouraged Ones becomes a lament for depression.

It does seem fair to say though that each song is quite similar to the one that came before and the one that follows. Each track has the same verse-chorus-verse format with notable exceptions being Gone which is far less rigid in terms of structure and the instrumental. Yet despite the relative similarity each song exemplifies, the songs never feel tiring. The atmosphere is really what sells this album, being suitably dreary and hopeless and conjuring images of a bleak and rainy urban landscape. The overall simplicity is by far the most important aspect of extrapolating the powerful atmosphere that this album delivers. Songs are suitably monotonous with very little variation between drum patterns, guitar work and vocals. It seems that this monotonous delivery allows Katatonia to hammer the thick, depressing atmosphere into the listeners head. The atmosphere never lets up on this one, remaining a constant monochromatic darkness throughout. And whilst such imagery may conjure disgust with certain readers, I find the monochromatic atmosphere to be highly beneficial to the overall composure of the music. The songs drone on and on until they weave themselves into your head until you find it impossible to remove these suicidal hymns from your psyche.

Discouraged Ones is a very bleak album, from the pure anguish of Gone to the melancholy undertones of Instrumental, Discouraged Ones is an album that locks the listeners emotions in a vice grip and refuses to let go. From the hopeless, drawn out vocals, to the doomy, perhaps even lifeless guitar lines, Discouraged Ones carries on with what Katatonia are good at; creating sad, emotional music with a powerful atmosphere. Of course this lacks the metallic intensity of their early career yet I will argue that the softer and stripped down approach of Discouraged Ones makes the music all the more effective. Impeccable in its beautiful simplicity, Discouraged Ones remains as one of the purest representations of depression.

Katatonia's struggle against stagnation led them to modify their sound for the second time at their career, now turning towards a strange, but even more unique sound, which was neither the alternative metal/rock of their late works, nor the death/doom sound that brought them recognition on the metal scene.

Actually, this is not a radical departure from the sound of the previous album, because the simple, repetitive droning riffing and the minimalistic song structures are still present in here. However, the growls, double bass drumming and heavier riffing are completely eliminated from the music, and are instead replaced by clean, melancholic but still dense and distorted guitar lines, and heartfelt sung vocals, not unlike the ones of The Cure's Robert Smith. In fact, a good way to describe the sound of this album would be Brave Murder Day meets Pornography.

At first listen, it might seem that all the songs sound the same (most of them having this 'dundun dundun dundun dundun dundun dundun dundun dundun' riff pattern), but, with time, and repeated listens, every song stars to reveal its own character. Nevertheless, or as a consequence of this, trying to pick standouts is a pointless labor. The drumming is even more basic and simplistic, using most of the time simple 4/4 patterns, and while Jonas Renkse's clean vocals still feel quite amateurish, he makes up for this disadvantage with an extremely intense, emotional and honest performance, never being over-the-top or trying too hard.

The less aggressive direction and the dreamy textures incorpored to the music give it a great, elaborated atmospheric effect, like that of an autumnal, rainy evening, and the lyrics are somewhat more intriguing than the ones on past works, focusing in depression, and while still having a metaphorical approach, they are written in a way than the listener can either try to understand them 'literally', or make up his/her own personal meaning about them.

This is one of those records where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and it has to be heard many times to be fully understood by the listener, because at first it might seem awkward or sappy. In other words, it's a grower, and the main reason why Katatonia succeeded at this new change of sound is because they kept the essence of the music alive and intact, trading heaviness for emotion, and using this new found accessibility not as an end, but as a mean.

Discouraged Ones is, infamously, the Katatonia album that, being their first to feature exclusively clean vocals, marks the transition in their career from their “old”, more metal style to their “new” style, incorporating mostly non-metal references, like Jeff Buckley, The Cure, Fields of the Nephilim and Red House Painters. And, while I'm sure it is impossible to recognize here the same band that composed Dance of December Souls, I don't believe this is a huge departure from the sound of Brave Murder Day. The guitarwork, with its slow, melodic riffs repeated to create a hypnotic sound, and the minimalistic approach to songwriting (just compare the simple drum patterns of both releases) are just as much here as they were there. And if you listen to the main riff of the first track, “I Break”, it'd be pretty easy to reach the conclusion that it has more to do with “Murder” than with, say, “Ghost of the Sun”, from the later Viva Emptiness. The biggest difference between DO and its predecessor, that makes people perceive it right away as a lighter album – as in, to label one as doom/death, and the other as depressive rock – seems to be the presence of more twinkling clean guitar parts, the clean vocals, and the mix, that gives them a more prominent place, instead of highlighting the guitars as much. DO also pushed further BMD's minimalism, sticking to shorter and more conventional song structures, instead of strangely arranged epics. In a way, this minimalism weights both in favor of DO and against it.

It weights in its favor because, together, everything works: the hypnotic guitars, the seemingly tired drumming, the strange, somewhat muddy production (that seems to give it all an aura of being a much older album than it really is), the morose and not really technically proficient vocals... everything comes together to create a depressive mood. Unsurprisingly, the lyrics aren't exactly the kind of thing that make your day brighter either. The themes are suicide (on the very first song, nonetheless), self-effacement, feelings of worthlessness and being unable to change one's life for the better, failed human relationships and urban images of decay – important to point them out here, since DO pretty much sets itself apart from the previous albums by focusing on more urban atmospheres, as opposed to the forests and mountains of early Katatonia's lyrics.

The chorus for the 4th track, “Relention”, sums up the whole of the album's concept pretty well: “I'm returning from something... to something... to something...”, all backed by guitars that endlessly wail like sirens on your ears. Everything's hopeless here and the music makes sure to let you know about it. There's no room for other emotions, like anger, happiness or even that highly dramatic, screaming sorrow of early Katatonia. One may complain that the songs here sound a little samey, and, yeah, they kind of do, especially since they all work within the frame of the same mood, and when you compare DO to BMD, you'll notice BMD had some more variety – from the serene melancholy of “Endtime” to the faster upbeat tones of “Murder” to the ballad “Day”. And that's where DO's minimalism kind of weights against it too: no matter how much you enjoy this album, you can't help but feel it's missing something... maybe some slightly more complex drumming or more varied songwriting. However, when you stop to think about it and compare DO to what Katatonia would develop later on, you see that, with more varied songwriting, DO would be Viva Emptiness. After this album, Katatonia would start a gradual process of working with other elements in their sound that would give them the ability or the will to express a wider range of emotions and human experiences, and songs like “Right into the Bliss”, from Tonight's Decision, “Clean Today”, from Last Fair Deal Gone Down or “Criminals”, from VE, prove this point, as self-pity gives way to hope, anger and expectation.

But, as it happens with the 4 stages of grief, Katatonia wasn't ready yet to move on, and DO is the moment to wallow in the depths of unmoving melancholy. And, the more you listen to it, the more you start to pick up on details here and there that set the songs apart from each other and show that quite some thought was put into the song structures. “I Break”, for instance, starts with the verse riff, followed by the bridge (announced by a rare drum fill), both, then are repeated, accompanying the vocals, before going into a new riff (that sounds like a variation on the verse one) for the chorus, and then a different riff marks the transition back to the start. “Deadhouse”, on the other hand, begins with the chorus riff, then switches into much quieter instrumentation with bass, drum and clean guitar for the verse, and features a weird interlude after the 2nd chorus. “Relention” has a bass intro before the wailing guitars start; “Saw You Drown” has a clean guitar intro, followed by a louder riff, a quiet verse, and a progressively louder bridge that climaxes with the chorus; and “Instrumental” and “Distrust” even have solos. When you think how easy it could've been to simply write songs with the structure of intro, riff 1 + verse, riff 2 + chorus, like many metal bands that have switched into a “lighter” rock style do (or even how many generic metal bands do in general), it makes you appreciate these little things a bit more.

So, in hindsight, I'd definitely say that, while later Katatonia albums are better crafted overall and feature better instrumentation, improved vocals and more variation, both in pace and mood, DO, in its minimalism and straightforwardness, has its own appeal and remains their best album to put on after you've had a shitty day. Highlights include “I Break”, “Deadhouse”, “Cold Ways”, “Saw You Drown”, “Instrumental” and, if you're getting the re-release, “Quiet World”, the best song ever made about feeling utterly worthless.

Off the heels of Brave Murday Day, this had a lot of potential to become something cool and indecent. The cover art looked promising, but that’s as far as it went before my expectations were thrown into the gutter. On the previous album, Katatonia had that song “Day” which was a complete dip in the quality of that album. Renkse let loose some really feeble clean singing on that which came off as heartfelt to him and annoying to the rest of us. For Discouraged Ones, he unleashes everything in this style without a hint of growling, which is a horrible move for an already diluted album. I have no huge issue with Renkse’s singing on today’s Katatonia albums, but back during this era he just wasn’t ready, choosing his restrained voice and taking the rest of the band down with him.

To continue to get his vocals out of the way, imagine a teenager trying out for choir and protruding his vocals for the female chorus while maintaining his manly voice. It’s just a mess, with Renkse sounding whiny and unfit for a job that could have gone to Nyström, since he can actually do both cleans and screams. Anyway, Renkse’s monotonous performance staggers every song into going nowhere and sounding alike, since he’s got no soul or emotion at all to do anything else but read his lines. Thankfully the production was amped up so that the vocals don’t drown out the instruments like on the last album, so expect a balance mix properly suited to playing gloomy rock music.

Leaving the doom / death behind, we’re attacked with grimy chords and mid-paced to slow and lifeless tracks that literally have no emotion to them. The instrumental track near the end is probably the only song on here that I connect with not only because it’s devoid of vocals, but because it actually contains elements crafted together to produce something harmonic and interesting. Everything else on here dabs in atmosphere here and there, but ultimately this album is made up of dull, low-key tracks with the same guitar rhythms and sterile drum pattern. No chances are taken, no riffs shine, no leads or melodies chartered like on the next album, the bass merely grumbles under the guitars, and Renkse does the same lazy recital for every song. Variety wasn’t huge on Brave Murder Day, either, but you could tell one riff apart from another at the very least, let alone hear six different tracks that worked in each other’s favors. Since almost all the tracks sound the same here, and since they don’t work together, Discouraged Ones one feels like it takes forever to finish from the get-go – one song feels like a fucking eternity.

Knowing Renkse, Nyström, and even Norrman (the newest October Tide is proof), there should have been something great here. Is one good instrumental really all they could muster up? The clarity of the production did the right thing aside from submerging the tone in grime, and the drums are hot and loud with the guitars rather than being the cold opposite, but what the hell else was accomplished? Mediocrity is one thing, but this is the king of them all when it comes to writing songs for the sake of writing songs. Nothing stands out, nothing is really catchy, nothing overcomes adversity, and nothing even shows that the band has moved on for better or worse, since they could and would record meaningful music with this sound. It just doesn’t show up on here, and to me they could have avoided this pitiful pitfall if they actually tried to do something worthwhile. Skip this crock of shit and go for Tonight’s Decision instead. That album doesn’t score incredibly high with me, but it’s a huge improvement by nailing what should have been done on this album.

Straight out of the early 90's doom metal scene, Katatonia, an overlooked prodigal son was pushing boundaries, though not in the way you would expect. The band's voice, Jonas, had lost the ability to scream properly, even having an at the time unknown Mikeal Akerfeldt to vocal duties for their "Brave Murder Day" album. But what was the band to do? They couldn't have Mikeal do vocals for all Katatonia albums from there on out, not with his main squeeze Opeth just beginning to blossom, and Jonas' clean vocals, while fine, wouldn't suite the fuzzy, jagged guitar tones the band was turning out at the time. So the band decided to pursue a new sound, however in doing so they did not take any steps forward, but a few steps back.

The first thing you'll notice about the new Katatonia is that they have simplified themselves, opener "I Break" begins on an easy chord and shows that the band is now following a verse/chorus kind of structure with their songs. One could say that Katatonia have reverted to "a more mainstream sound" or have turned into a pop band. However, I believe that they have merely stripped themselves down, taking all the excess elements of their doom roots and casting them aside to compensate for Jonas' newer, "more normal" voice. After repeated listens I can assure you that there is nothing "poppy" about this album. There's no catchy hooks or pinch harmonics, there's no rip roarin' in your face solos, and the band shockingly goes the entire album with no "yeahs" or "woos" in sight. Pop? Hardly.

It's the simplicity and very forward moving song structure that makes this album a winner. In fact it's so simple that upon one listen, all the songs pretty much sound the same. It was only after repeated tries that the harmonies began to bleed out from the already down tuned guitars, and that I noticed the wavy bass is very audible to the careful listener. Every song has a memorable moment, line, verse, or break, making the whole thing stick in your head long after "Distrust" is done. Again, it may sound like I'm describing a pop album, but the it's the quality of all these things that separate it from such a silly tag.
But what about Jonas' voice, the reason it's all this way to begin with? Rest assured that while he's no American Idol, his voice is actually quite good and fits the music perfectly. He sounds tired, strung out, and world weary. Many of his vocals lines are actually addictive, making the spectacular moments on this album even better, and his voice actually seems to quiver with the more dramatic lyrics. Speaking of which, major points to him for still writing some of the most unappreciated lyrics in the scene. He's gone from the semi-stereotypical world of doom, to topics that most people can actually relate to. "When I was thinking this was something permanent/You were already thinking of going away". Harsh.

Katatonia are still doing what they did prior to this album, they are making sad, sad music. Though the sound is "lighter", the results are probably more effective than in their previous albums. When it's to the point that someone is screaming their sorrows for all to here, like in Katatonia's early albums (and the doom/death genre as a whole), you pretty much know there's no hope. To me, that kind of death metal says, "There is no hope, take your razor blade and let it go for a swim in your arteries", whereas this album says "Life is cold, but it's a burden that must be endured", which is more depressing than death ever could be. This album won't make you want to kill yourself, but it'll make you question your existence all the same. Rarely has a band been able to change their style this dramatically and succeed, and this album was only the first step on a road that, I believe, has brought us many quality albums.

Only two albums into their youthful career, Katatonia had already made a lasting impression upon the canonical of doom-death. However, that would be the end of their existence as a heavy metal band. A combination of factors, mainly the loss of Jonas’ ‘harsh’ voice, and a mini break-up, sparked a drastic change in style, that would become this album.

Discouraged Ones is often cited as a bit of a mixed bag of an album. Many seem to feel that Katatonia had not perfected their new musical style, and would only do so on their following album Tonight’s Decision. Certainly there is a slight feeling of clumsiness to many of the songs. Trying to pinpoint why this is however, can be difficult. Many of the songs still feature a ‘metalish’ main riff, and the lead guitar is still played in the similar complementary melodic fashion ala’ Brave Murder Day. But the song structure itself is entirely different. Where as before Katatonia’s songs were crafted as long compilations of various riffs and themes, the songs on this album are essentially verse/chorus pop songs. It is in this, not in the clean vocals or softer guitars, that mark this albums huge departure from their previous style.

The big question is then, can Katatonia pull off what are essentially pop songs? Preferably without making a humiliatingly large departure into the realms of emo hair, wrist bands, and Taking Back Sunday(*cough* Last Fair Deal Gone Down). At this Discouraged Ones succeeds. It may be pop music, but everything from the production, to the song writing is still uncompromisingly ‘Katatonia’. Everything is as it should be, the drumming is tight and hasn’t lost the edge that it had back on Dance of December Souls, Anders’ leads still complement the music wonderfully, and while opinions range on Jonas Renske‘s voice, I feel it works perfectly with the music. However, mentioning all of this is pointless, because lets remember this is essentially a pop album, and without decent song writing, it will undoubtedly blow. In the harsh world of pop music claims of atmosphere and ambiance will never be enough to save you from bad song writing.

Luckily, overall the song writing is excellent. Somehow though, I feel as if mentioning song writing in a heavy-metal review is akin to biting off my own tongue. One is suppose to claim “the riffs are excellent” or “the atmosphere is trancelike”, but I can’t do that, because it is not. While the album features riffs worth mentioning, and it still possess the archetypal ‘Katatonia’ atmosphere; it is still a pop album and it is in the well crafted songs like Deadhouse and Distrust that this album truly stands out as excellent. Sadly though, their departure into the realms of pop music means that they lost some of the awesome qualities their music possessed in their metal days.

After the creation of the bands landmark album 'Brave Murder Day' Katatonia called it a day. Thankfully it was a short one as their return to music was surprisingly good. This album shows the band loosing the last of their Doomdeath style opting for a straight forward and highly original Doom Metal approach.

In the bands eyes this album, and consequently its follow up, are musically in the same vein as 'Brave Murder Day' and this is true to an extent. One could point out that they are both minimalistic and 97% open chorded. That they are both melodic and Doom filled; but they aren't the same. The guitars sound is if they are tuned to standard instead of drop 'D' and the songs have more conventional structures.

The music is more in the verse chorus verse style then it was in the past. The guitars take the melancholic sound that they had established on the prior release to a new level. The leads are incredibly sorrow filled and bleak. There are no real solos to speak of save for the instrumental towards the end of the album.

The bass more or less follows the guitars lead never adding anything to special. The drums pick up right where 'BMD' left off, perhaps being a little faster however.

The vocals are clean and a little awkward as Jonas doesn't really do much aside from musically moaning above the music. It’s apparent that he's not comfortable in his skin; this changes on later releases however. The lyrics are more coherent than they were on 'BMD' as well.

There is a vast amount of atmosphere on every track. As with all Doom Metal, this isn't background noise; this is meant to be listened too in a dark or dimly lit room by oneself contemplating life and whether or not it’s truly worth living. This is a soul stirring release that, while lacking in a few places (most noticeably towards the end of the album) its still very high quality.

Although some of you will probably be flat out offended that I would brand this a pop album, or that pop could even be murky, its an interesting concept in midtempo, 4 minute, chorus driven songs mudded down and quietly spewed forth into a vat of distortion for rock catharsis.

This was the album that turned me onto Katatonia when I first heard it in 1999. Their middle-period is my favorite, and this is the album that catches them right on the dot of the transition. Jonas had taken some singing lessons, and claimed he had no more growls left in him (although he'll muster up Murder for an encore if you catch them live). Anders was a great metal guitarist that didn't like the clichés or stereotypes of such, and constantly worked for personal identity. Together on this album, the wrote very inspired music about being completely held down and jaded, which is about as ironic as "murky pop album".

Next point, the production is just killer. Self-produced by the band with a little help from Mr Akerfeldt (of who I heard rumor that he actually taught Jonas to sing), the record brings all instruments into form without pushing them up too far and taking away from the bleak reverberated chamber they're trying to trap the listener in. Anders constructs jagged, shifting twin guitar harmonies that trudge along with reverberated layers of Jonas on top, the drums mudded down slightly and the bass forming as the perfect glue.

The songs are consistently well crafted, with the exception of "Distrust" being a little dull and not that great of a closer ("Saw Your Drown" actually would have formed the perfect ending). The music and lyrics don't ever come across as "gothic", which can be a bad cliché when bands cross over like this, but rather it keeps up a personality more similar to rock bands like Joy Division and Codeine. The music gradually builds through degrees of frustration and gloom, before culminating at the climax of these feelings on "Nerve", which is just a mood killer of a song that with a little dissonance manages to just wallop you with all the crap they've been harboring.

The only album I can really compare this to is Unknown Pleasures by Joy Division. Simply in statement, claustrophobia, and trudging however. Katatonia approach this format with their own sound and ideas, and execute it the best they can. However, a lot of people won’t even want to approach this record just because it’s so damn gloomy. If this record had been written using the song structures of their previous record, Brave Murder Day, it'd be completely unlistenable. As it is though, its exceptional at what it does, and a lot of people seek out records of this sort. Highly recommended if it fits your mood.

This is the first CD I ever preordered, which says as much about my years of interest in music as about this album. Until the re-release in early 2007 it was nearly impossible to get the album for a fair price. So this review will be, naturally, of the re-release.

Something nice right up front as you unwrap the Digipack is that the colours of the cover have been inverted. Katatonia used this little trick with the 5.1 version of "The Great Cold Distance" and here it works really well; in fact, I like it more than the original. The rest of the pack is full of very neat and very fitting artwork/pictures. The same kind of pictures fill the booklet, which not only contains the albums lyrics (and the lyrics of the bonus tracks which is not the case in the "Brave Murder Day" re-release) but also liner notes by Anders which are something fun for the fan to read.

More important than the pretty face of everything of course is the music. This is, as has been said again and again, something completely different than "Brave Murder Day". All the songs are set in mid-tempo and feature monotone riffs, which, despite the brooding mood that probably stems from exclusively minor chords, gives the music something warm. Every song also makes do with basically two drum beats, one for the verse and one for the chorus, which is nothing big. They sound as if even a guitar player like me might be able to drum them, but for this music, they work just fine.
Experimental bits are very delicately placed here and there, most notably in the bridge of "Deadhouse", which adds the calls of dolphins (or whales) to the guitar. On the last two regular tracks, "Instrumental" and "Distrust", the musicians give us a glimpse of their full musical capability, which nevertheless has been kept to a minimum throughout the album to hold the atmosphere.
This adds up to a very dark, yet kind of rockish vibe and is the reason why oh so many fans do not like Katatonia. This doesn't mean they have sold out, though, because their music and their lyrics are still way too depressed for the mainstream. Yes, I know angsty rock music dominates the stations (or at least that's what I'm told), but there is a *slight* difference.

"high white ways
shattered by rain
pale dead walls
nerves pushed in pain"

It is hard to quote anything which fully demonstrates Jonas' Renkse's ability to write lyrics, but this example from "Nerve" might do. Overall, starting with "I break" the lyrics make me think of someone lying in a dark and dirty cellar thinking about what has happened to his life, sometimes a bit abstract (“Nerve”, “Stalemate”, “Last Resort”) and sometimes very easy to grasp (“Gone”).
The way in which Jonas will deliver his brilliant lyrics from now on is quite a love it or hate it case. I love them, it's as simple as that and I see nothing "pop-ish" or "emo-ish" in them, as some reviews have called them. It's noteworthy that his vocals are closer to a baritone than in later releases, reminding some, but not me, of Robert Smith.

The two bonus tracks, "Quiet World" and "Scarlett Heavens", could not be more diverse. While "Quiet World" fits easily into the mood set by the album, "Scarlett Heavens" resembles Katatonia's first and only approach to make Gothic Rock in the lines of "Bauhaus" or "The Sisters Of Mercy" and, although I'm as much of a fan as the next man, the track simply sucks. Too long, too boring vocals and plain annoying drums. But one can confidently hit the Stop button after "Quiet World", because one has just heard something very fine indeed.

This is in my opinion Katatonia's best recording. Discouraged Ones basically is a continuation of the style set up by Brave Murder Day except with shorter song structures and an all clean vocal performance. Many say this is a sell out, a more rock based sound. And though it is more rock based, it is still metal, and it is no less depressing and haunting then their previous work. Also a listener who pays attention will know that this album is still based in the oblique movements of their death/black roots, and often on the first listen, or to a more commercial listener, most of these songs will be off putting and upsetting, for they have some strange changes that seem random, yet when placed in the whole of the song make sense and are effective.

Interestingly though I would say the more streamlined songs are often the most effective and depressive, songs like Deadhouse, Saw You Drown and I Break. The ultimate goal of this album is to impart upon the listener a sense of withdrawl and depression. A fragile beauty in melancholy and sadness. In this it is incredibly effective, listening to it from beginning to end creates a deep sense of coldness and not really despair, but more of a sense that the creator desires to simply be left in a dark room, meditating on all that is wrong in his life. As such there is little catharsis containted on these songs. They much like David Bowie's album Low, do not get rid of any of the depression, they simply impart upon the listener that this is the situation, and for now, nothing can be done.

The closest to doom metal Katatonia gets on here is Gone, which is a powerful piece, even if it one of the shortest. It is a desperate call, but it like all of this has nothing to resolve the pain, it is pure torment.

So allthough this album will not appeal to someone who is looking for Brave Murder Day part two, it is in my opinion their most effective recording. Much of their work following this is indeed much more commercial and mainstream, and although it has its moments, it is nothing compared to the pure depression and melancholy contained upon here. To all who enjoy music that is joyless and unrelentingly bleak, buy this album. For others it might be a good idea to listen before you buy. But from me this is highly recommended.

"Discouraged Ones" is the third album to be issued by Swedish legends, Katatonia in the year of 1998. This release consists of eleven tracks and totals at just over forty-six minutes. With an all star line-up including none only thank Jonas Renkse and Blackheim, i held high expectations upon the release of this album, especially as it was the follow up to the simply astounding "Brave Murder Day". Its difficult to put into words how this makes me feel and how i feel about this piece of work, however i will give it a shot.

Katatonia are now known as somewhat of an experimental band, and i believe this release marked the occasion for the first dramatic change in Katatonia's illustrious history. Katatonia have seemingly transformed into a minimalistic and simplistic band. Katatonia have retained some of the elements from their roots however, especially on this release. Katatonia are quite possibly the most emotive band i've heard, they express such depression and sombre emotions through their music. They do this with the use of atmospheric keys and mid-tempo melodic riffs. This offers the perfect setting for Jonas' vocals, which are simply superb here. He has finally been given the chance to lead the way with Katatonia, and he doesn't let this chance pass him by. The vocals are clean and sung in a melancholy way, which compliments the music fantastically.

As Katatonia have developed, so have their songs. The music is now shorter in length and very simplistic, the production has also significantly changed. Its now thicker and this enhances the atmospheric nature of the album which is quite slow and transcending. This gives the music more feeling. Katatonia is a band who knows where they come from and where they want to go in terms of musical direction, and this is merely a stepping stone in the right direction, and a brilliant one at that. This is an album which carries connotations of solitude, isolation and sadness. This is an album which brilliantly manages to incorporate influences from genres outside the Metal genre itself. This is simply hypnotic.

Highlights include: Cold Ways, Nerve and Saw You Drown.

As the first tones of "I Break" grace the ears, one can notice a huge change from Katatonia's mid-90's Doom/Death sound. The vocals are switched from Åkerfeldts huge growls to Renkse's almost alt-rockish clean vocals. Overall, the sound is more rock than metal this time around. I can't even imagine what a shocker this change of sound must have been back in 1998.

Something does remain from "Brave Murder Day". The atmosphere. The doomy groove, hypnotic guitars and sheer feeling. The simplistic yet effective 4/4 patterns and the chilling lead sections are present, working well in the new soundscape. These songs are also way more to the point than the Doom/Death epics, who usually were around 6-10 minutes in length.

The weird thing about "Discouraged Ones" is that I find myself liking the moody, defeated songs like "Stalemate", "Last Resort" and "Distrust" more than catchy ones like "Cold Ways", "I Break" and "Deadhouse". I do enjoy all of them, but there's just something about that ambience of a song like "Distrust". I've just never came across music so utterly defeated.

In fact, the whole delivery of the disc has a solemn feeling of regression and defeat. That's the best way I can describe the greatness of "Discouraged Ones". Lyrically, one can always find something to relate to here in harsh times. Depression, breakups, loss, self-destruction. It's all present. And as I said before, the pieces are just musically impeccable in their simplicity.

Favourite tracks: "Distrust", "Last Resort", "Saw You Drown"

... discouraged from finding anything really worthwhile in this album I mean. Though it is a fairly common evolution for well-known death-doom bands from the early 90’s to turn to the so-called “depressive rock” genre (the names of Anathema and Paradise Lost also come to mind), that doesn’t mean it’s a good thing. Indeed I still wonder what audience this kind of music is directed to, as this is still too dark to really gain mainstream recognition, while it’s become too mellow and rock-ish to keep on pleasing traditional doom fans.

This general statement exactly describes this Katatonia 1998 opus. Eleven mellow and passionless rock songs, all formatted between 3:30 and five minutes, without any slightest variation from the standard verse-chorus structure, without any tempo change – every track, with the exception of the slowest but not better closing one, exhibits the same mid-paced beat – and without any emotion. This is supposed to be depressive music, well depressive music has a name, it is called doom metal, isn’t it? You’ll be in pain to find any doom element here, and I’ve to agree with a previous reviewer on this point, you can’t believe it’s still Katatonia playing when you’re used to their older works. It’s not gothic rock either, as it lacks of any distortion or any other sick element from the aforementioned genre. No, it’s some dark pop-rock and nothing more. Besides it fails in depressing me in any way, and I’m far from being a totally insensitive man.

What is indeed surprising is that so utterly simple music should be quite easy to listen to, however I had to try several times before managing to keep on listening to it from beginning to the end. And it only lasts 47 minutes. Because as suggested before, monotony is key here. Yes, I tend to find even my favourite doom bands boring at some moments, but it is because of occasional excessive slowness or minimalism, what has nothing to do with what is happening there. Songs are far from being exceptionally slow by doom standards, but the problem is, it is NOT doom metal, it is rock, and obviously this album is still too slow by rock standards, what makes it extremely sleep-inducing. Jonas Renkse’s clean, almost pop-ish voice, also fails in conveying any emotion and he just sounds bored. Not despaired, BORED, as if he only wished to be far away from the studio to do anything but recording this piece of flatness. I won’t say he was the ultimate growler, but he was anyway far better when he spitted his despair in his old singing style. His drumming abilities aren’t really better, it just sounds as if he copied and pasted the same drumming line from one track to another. Again, he’s never been a drums genius, but well.

The only track I can listen to while keeping my eyes open is the opening I Break, though it doesn’t especially sound fundamentally different from the others, but I guess it’s just because it’s the first track, so it has the charm of novelty, and it may be slightly more energetic, more aggressive than the following songs. The following Stalemate and its soft but beautiful chorus is half-decent, the rest is simply insignificant rock filling not even redeemed by the short keyboard-driven atmospheric instrumental interlude. Eventually the first minute of the slower closing track could evoke some slight return to the doom past of the band, but as soon as the rock-ish chorus pops up one understands every hope has to be given up.

Did I miss something? People seem to overall appreciate this album, and I don’t mind some softer music sometimes. But even after having listened to it several times I’m still looking for anything really memorable in it. Oh, I’ve found it. The clear production.

Highlights: I Break

The first time I heard this record, I was stunned. It had nothing to do with Brave Murder Day. Katatonia’s sound had radically changed from a beautiful growl to a nice clear voice. This was a major change for the band and it could have had destroyed the band thoroughly. However, it did not; in fact, it is what propelled their career.

The lyrics are dark and depressing, which mixed with the vocals, results in a very particular sound. However, the similitude of the songs can get pretty dreary, it is not an album that you would have in your CD player playing constantly. Nonetheless, it is not boring and there are a few stand out tracks that sticks to you after listening to it only once such as: Saw You Drown, I Break, Relention, Distrust and Last Resort. My favourite song on the record is Saw You Drown. The effect produced by this song is incredible; the lyrics are very, depressing and sad. I Break and Last Resort are also good tracks from the album, but every song sounds very similar, so the lyrics are what make the songs stand out more than others. Relention is another excellent track, the lyrics are simple and repetitive, but emphasizes on the despair: “I’m returning from something, to something.” As the lyrics of the other songs, they practically all treat on loss of hope and this constant search for something or someone.

Also, the guitar riffs are quite simple, but bring to the songs this dusky atmosphere that I really enjoy about Katatonia. Nothing is fast, the guitar, the drums or the vocals are always played slowly, but correctly. There is an instrumental on it which is called Instrumental (lack of originality), it is great, nothing overdone, and keeps the same slow rhythm which makes it good. It sounds to me like a forest song; it has this kind of “being alone in the forest” feeling to it.

Katatonia has become an excellent doom metal Swedish quintet. So if you have only heard Dance Of December Souls or Brave Murder Day, do not expect anything of the sort from Discouraged Ones. I was even quite surprised to see that they didn’t change the band’s name after this transformation. So this is definitely a must-have album to all doom metal fans and I give it an 87/100 score.

DarkDryad

When one reviews any post-"Brave Murder Day" Katatonia, it's a given that you can't take any of the band's early material into considering, because, not unlike groups such as Ulver, Mayhem, Borknagar, Satyricon, etc, it may as well be a totally different band recording under the same name.

The band has strayed from their doom/death roots, but the end result isn't bad at all. "Discouraged Ones" is the best of the new Katatonia sound, as i found all the albums that came after it to be either inconsistent, or boring (ie "Viva Emptiness"). DO is where the band should have stopped. The music is full of somber emotions, and is conveyed with relatively basic trance-inducing emotional shoegaze rock. The guitars are thick-sounding and sludgy, but here and there the band throws in high-note riffs that are reminiscent of "Brave Murder Day". The vocals are clean and very gloomy, almost like it's painful just to exert the effort to share the utter bitterness felt. The lyrics deal with these sort of emotions: despair, lonliness, gloom & doom. This definitely isn't an album to listen to on a bright, sunny day, but instead it should be cherished in the darkness of a dark, rainy day, where one can't help but let depression run amok. There are a lot of hightlights on the album (especially I Break, Relention, etc), but, as said by Shred1921, you really need to listen to the album the whole way through in order to fully grasp and appreciate the music.

This album is very thought-provoking and moving. The lyrical content deals with alot of the negative aspects of life: depression, loss, suffering. The songs offer alot in the way of open-ness, there are alot of full-on instrumental passages, but there's never a whole lot going on; barely any lead work, no fancy bass licks, no overtly wild drum fills, just mid-paced hypnotic riffing.

The vocalist fits perfectly with the melancholy mood of this music. His voice is filled with pain and emotion. The vox are all totally clean, no growling or screaming is to be found here. The drumming, while fairly straightforward, is controlled and powerful. The guitars bleed emotion all throughout the album. All the instruments sort of meld together to form a solid backbone.

This is certainly an album that can, and demands to, be listened to all at once. It's not overly long, just under 45 minutes, and each song is 4-5 minutes long for the most part.

You definitely need to be in a certain state of mind to fully enjoy this album. During times when you are feeling very upbeat and happy, this would be a crappy album to listen to, you'd probably want to go listen to some hardcore thrash or something fast and crushing. This is for rainy days and times when you're feeling low.

The band has certainly carved themselves into a little niche here. I wouldn't really know where to put this if I had to generalize it... there are some pretty heavy riffs here, the drumming is definitely metal, but it seems like it's lacking some crucial ingredient that just screams metal.

But whatever it is, it's a very powerful and melancholy album. Nothing seems out of place, and the lyrical depth is great. Just got dumped by your significant other? Put this on. It'll make you feel a bit better... then when you're up for it, toss on some thrash and crack some skulls.

Choice cuts: Just listen to the whole thing, it'll all make sense together.