For Funerals to Come...

From the early to mid 1990s, the Swedish lads from Katatonia were among the trailblazers of the doom/death genre, right alongside other illustrious bands such as the early Paradise Lost, Anathema or My Dying Bride. Like their stylistic brethren from the shores of Albion, however, they rather quickly turned their backs on the style that first put them on the map, leaving us with only two full-length albums and, luckily, a number of EPs to satisfy our hunger for some dank, moldy death metal of doom.

For Funerals to Come, released roughly a year after the band's much heralded debut album, marks the first, albeit minor transition in Katatonia's sound, forming the link between the barren monolithic landscapes of bleak despair and desolation on Dance of December Souls and the somewhat lusher, more velvety kind of melancholy and sadness on Brave Murder Day. Starting with this EP, the hints of black metal and the satanistic leanings were mostly gone, making way for even more somber melodies and more Gothic influences instead.

The band's doom/death roots are on full display in the opener "Funeral Wedding", which starts out with a crushing main theme that is both harrowing in its despair and oddly beautiful in its mournful sadness. These first two minutes show off Katatonia's mastery of the doom/death style and are the unquestionable pinnacle of this EP, even though there's a lot more good stuff yet to come. The song then shifts into a mellow section, which around the 02:40 mark is suddenly interrupted by a lead bass break giving way to a flurry of different motives, riffs and tempos. Everything is permanently in flux, never allowing the listener to get too comfortable. In fact, these sudden thematic shifts are characteristic of an EP that sees the band abruptly switching from one musical motive to the next, time and time again. You can never know what's about to happen, and while this helps keep things interesting and refreshingly unpredictable, it also makes the material seem somewhat pieced together or even disjointed. This is exacerbated by a general lack of recurring themes, reappearing riffs or even traditional choruses.

On the plus side, For Funerals to Come does not suffer from a dearth of variation. The short acoustic title track with its whispered vocals and dreamy vibe is an obvious throwback to the acoustic interludes found on the band's debut album, while "Epistel" is but a brief instrumental basically consisting of nothing but random industrial noise – a wholly superfluous affair adding absolutely nothing of substance. "Shades of Emerald Fields" and "Love of the Swan" are pretty much in the same vein as the opener, despite taking a slightly more streamlined approach and not having quite as many different ideas crammed into them. Like "Love of the Swan", "Black Erotica", with its gorgeous main riff, was not originally included in this EP. It deviates a little from the other tracks as far as featuring a somewhat more cohesive structure and the production being a bit more gritty and raw. It also sounds oddly familiar due to the fact it's an earlier version of the song "12" from the band's second album Brave Murder Day. While it may not be as polished as its later version, the added ruggedness lends it an even more morbid and sepulchral atmosphere.

In terms of technical execution, the vocals, guitars and bass on For Funerals to Come are all handled competently and the production is more than adequate for what is being offered stylistically. The drums, on the other hand, do have a weird synthetic sound to them, at least on some of the tracks. While it may seem like there's a drum computer at work, the drums apparently were played by Jonas, but on a digital drum set. It's a good thing those weren't used on all the songs, as their tinny sound can be a little irritating.

For Funerals to Come, in spite of all its flaws, is still a very worthwhile addition to the record collection of anyone with a lasting appetite for 1990s doom/death metal, as well as those who, like this humble reviewer, believe Katatonia's early work to be their best. In terms of songwriting it certainly is a bit of a patchwork affair and therefore less than the sum of its parts, but it offers more than enough great moments to make up for that. Plus, in case it hasn't been mentioned often enough, Katatonia simply used to be pretty darn good at this whole doom/death thingy …

Choicest cuts: Funeral Wedding, Black Erotica

Rating: 7.5 out of 10 points

The evolution of doom/death metal bands throughout the 90’s was rather interesting. While plenty had a very short career and would disband in just a couple of years, the bands who stayed around longer had no problem changing their sound here and there which is exactly what Katatonia did.

Musically I would describe For Funerals to Come as melodic death/doom metal – mainly because of the rather energetic riffs that Blakkheim demonstrates here that have quite a ‘’living’’ feeling to them which at times comes close to the Iron Maiden inspired melodic death metal kind of style. Some of the slower riffs also remind me of October Tide’s Rain Without End. While both Jonas Renske and Blakkheimm are credited for the vocals here, they’re not far off the ones on Dance of December Souls: agonizing, human sounding shrieks and wails that despite being even more dramatic at times are a nice reminder of what defined the early era of Katatonia. The same goes for the keyboards that, despite their moderate use, boost the autumnal atmosphere found here.

For Funerals to Come does come off rather incomplete however which is a huge let down considering the two actual songs on here are pretty good nonetheless. ‘’Funeral Wedding’’ is a pretty excellent epic that switches between different sections yet it doesn’t come off incoherent despite its length. The song is clearly a step forward from the earlier Katatonia stuff and while the vibe remains similar due to the hissing rasps, moving guitar riffs and energetic drumming, the more riff-driven approach Blakkheim approaches here is clearly something new for the band. ‘’Shades of Emerald Fields’’ isn’t much different, with more elegant leads and speedier riffs although it lacks the cathartic feeling of the first track before the acoustic break and clean vocals finish it off. The title track is a moody acoustic piece, similar to ‘’Elohim Meth’’ of Dance of December Souls while ‘’Epistel’’ closes the EP which is basically nothing but some noise.

Production is a bit rough here, but anyone familiar with the Katatonia releases of the time shouldn’t have a hard time digesting the sound here. For Funerals to Come is a solid EP and a good reminder of the earlier Katatonia sound. Still, I can’t help but feel let down that there never was a full length album released in this style before they turned into something completely different.

The reader may insert some nostalgic music of his/her choice here. Indeed, looking back with some indulgence at the series of reviews I wrote for pre-1997 Katatonia releases a few years ago I just realized to my horror there was a chapter lacking – the 1995 For Funerals to Come EP. That’s strange as, contrary to for instance the Sounds of Decay EP this is all but an anecdotal release, as the hyphen between the monolithic death/doom tracks of Dance of December Souls and the somehow friendlier, more progressive Brave Murder Day.

Of course, Dance of December Souls will always remain this unique, solitary monument with no real equal not only in Katatonia, but also in the whole metal history. This EP, that’s a fact, is already leaning far more towards the soft doom of Brave Murder Day. The Blackheim/Renkse/Le Huche line-up, the same as on DoDS (Le Huche as Israphel Wing on said album), or the very scarce amount of clean vocals compared to harsh vocals, shouldn’t fool anyone. The tempo might be slow – after all it’s doom so what are you expecting – nonetheless with its abundance of upbeat moments, its more polished production as well as its emphasis on melody this output already has little to do with the neverending funeral march of the debut. Nothing wrong, you can still record excellent metal without sounding like DoDS, and Katatonia has just proven it here.

What bugs me a bit, though, is that the two genuine songs, I mean the two first, are simply devoid of any structure or coherence. The riffs – and they are numerous – are amongst the best Katatonia have ever pulled out, but they’re tied together in a completely random fashion. Superb leads (hey, take this solo at 1:41 in the first track...) or bass solos (there are several of them) are thrown in the meal in an equally arbitrary way, making the ensemble pretty confused, two musical cadavre exquis in the surrealistic vein more than actual songs. There isn’t a single recurring melody, not a single recurring riff, pretty much anything from the second track could have been featured in the first one and the other way round, and just when the guys considered they had enough they abruptly stopped. Laziness, or a mere wish of trying something different, more spontaneous? I can’t still decide yet.

The vocals are another tricky issue. I have nothing against them, but let’s admit they sound weird, in lack of a better term. This EP is indeed some kind of curio as, if I’m not mistaken, it’s the only Katatonia release where Blackheim is credited for vocals alongside Renkse (and I’m taking the opportunity to apologize for having written Renske for all these years in all ingenuousness). However, even for someone familiar with DoDS it’s pretty hard to distinguish between both, as Renkse’s vocals themselves already sound different from the agonizing prehistoric laments of DoDS. I’d attribute the only occurrence of clean vocals, on the second track, to Renkse backed by Blackheim, and the harsh vocals on the same track to Renkse as well. On the first track on the contrary the singing seems so distorted and forced, sometimes to the limits of annoyance (this ridiculous black metal shriek in the end, c’mon), the challenge should be proposed to only most extreme old Katatonia fans. The opening verse features without doubt Renkse, but for the rest I’m giving up. Further, trying to credit the backing murmur on the title track to anyone would be futile.

So, talking about this almost instrumental title track – it’s what reminds the most of DoDS, in the continuity of the chilling acoustic interludes featured on said album, especially Elohim Meth. It doesn’t completely manage to reach the both simplistic and intense beauty of those though; further, in the absence of crushing epics to counterbalance it partially loses its point, sounding a tad like an orphan track. Finally coming to Epistel the best is probably to ignore it as this isn’t a song, this isn’t even music to begin with, only a succession of industrial sounds I fail to relate to Katatonia, old or new, in any way.

However rather than finishing on this small negative note let’s now make a first step towards the concept of an anti-review – a review that would talk about anything BUT the studied piece of work. Indeed, anyone familiar with old Katatonia should notice there’s a song shining by its ABSENCE, the song working as the missing link between the band’s two first full-lengths: Black Erotica of course, the earlier version from 12 (sic) from Brave Murder Day, a version without Mikael Åkerfeldt, without the clean vocals, with a far colder, gloomier, dirtier sound, a version that from the beginning to the end seemed specially designed for this EP (instead, you’ll find it on the WAR compilation or, more easily, on the essential Brave Yester Days compilation). All the more as, you know, the line The moon gave me flowers / For funerals to come first appeared in, precisely, that song. But, what? I told you, this release is weird.

Highlights: Funeral Wedding, Shades of Emerald Fields

Both in a positive and negative sense, this EP is definitely Katatonia's most odd release. The moods are similar to the debut album, fanatically depressive with an almost Black Metal quality. Renkse's voice got way better and he also tries out some clean vocals for the first time.

But when it comes down to songwriting this is a total lottery. Especially "Funeral Wedding" and somewhat "Shades of Emerald Fields" are going in a lot of different directions and many times come across as scattered. The breaks between different parts in "Funeral Wedding" are quite abrupt. The individual parts are good but I find it hard to absorb this as a song. Still fantastic melody moments like the one at 3:35 saves the song.

"Shades of Emerald Fields" on the other hand is way better. It has a more distinctive pulse that glues the song together. As a song it's much more satisfying, since the crescendo of Renkse's clean vocals towards the end wraps it up in a way that definitely represents the fantastic songwriters Blakkheim and Renkse wound up being later in their career. The album is ended with the moody acoustic title track and the outro "Epistel".

This is definitely a worthwhile EP for Doom Metal fans and people who enjoy dark, depressive music. While being far from Katatonia's best material "For Funerals To Come" is worth checking out.

'For Funerals to Come' is the third release from the masters of melancholy. Timely it belongs to the older era of Katatonia between 'Dance of December Souls' and 'Brave Murder Day'. Musically it's clearly an updated version of 'Dance of December Souls'. Blackheim shows some really great guitarwork here. The leads are melancholy yet beautiful and sound even hopeful at times, which is really strange from Katatonia. His riffs aren't as minimalistic as on 'Brave Murder Day' though. There are some quite complex ones on 'Funeral Wedding' and melodic riffs are riddled throughout the songs. Even Le Huche has a spot to play an intricate bassline.

But the most important ingredient is found on this EP, the Katatonia atmosphere. The thick feeling of despair and melancholy that haunts all of their albums. While 'Shades of Emerald Fields' has some groovier points the atmosphere is still clearly there. And it is even more emphasized by the forlorn screeches and growls of either/both Blackheim and/or Renkse (according to their homesite both do vocals and the booklet doesn't say) and the melancholic choirish singing of what I believe is both Blackheim and Renkse. The screeches aren't as monotonic as on 'Dance of December Souls'. Whoever does them has managed to add much feeling into them. Also Renkse's clean vocals aren't the howling vocals of the later albums but more like just normal singing. The two actual songs are clearly driven onwards by Blackheim's masterful guitaring. Vocals aren't even present most of the time so Katatonia let's the music speak for itself.

The only actual fault is the fact that this release is once again too damn short! I could listen to a whole album or two of stuff like this. The other complaint is that the fourth track is quite useless. 'For Funerals to Come' is an outro but 'Epistel' is also an outro-type track. It doesn't even feature anything musically interesting but just static with some screeching with effects laid over it.

(Originally published in Tuonela webzine (c) 2001)