Artist: Katatonia
Label: Century Media Records
Release Date: 5/4/04
Rating: 4 Skulls
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Title: Brave Yester Days Artist: Katatonia Label: Century Media Records Release Date: 5/4/04
Rating: 4 Skulls |
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Reviewed by Requiem (6/25/04):
Katatonia fans rejoice! Brave Yester Days is a journey through the hard to find Katatonia catalogue and will surely impress with its content, both sonically and visually. Presented in 2-disc digipack form, this monster of a release includes stunning artwork and many hard to find tracks throughout the band's career. It also serves as a growth chart for the band, showing how they progressed throughout the years. Brave Yester Days takes us as early back as their first demo in '92 to their more current sounds via '98's Saw You Drown EP.Disc 1 begins with the Jhva Elohim Meth demo, which brings us to the band's blackened doom roots, not a far cry from the two tracks from Dance of December Souls that are offered here. Depression was the name of the game here, with a more somber attitude taking over the aggression from here on in. Two songs from the War Compilation exemplify this in the noticeably slower and more melodic song structures that began to take form. Katatonia, along with their Swedish counterparts Opeth, began at this time crafting some of the most heart melting harmonies that metal had heard yet and this was quite evident on the For Funerals to Come EP displayed here in its entirety.
Disc 2 starts with the Michael Akerfelt vocal era of the band with two tracks off of the classic Brave Murder Day. Next we plunge right into the rare Sounds of Decay EP also featuring Opeth's lead growler. Having never heard this, I was highly impressed the quality level seeing that I've since forgotten the band's days without clean vocals. "At Last" contains the riff highlight with a killer clean riff merged with driving chords and an energetic beat to carry it all home. The Saw You Drown EP says goodbye to the death metal vocals and sees the band enter a more rock arena via clean vocals and straightforward tempos. In the end, I was won over by this abrupt change, bravely showing their non-metal influences through their already original sound.
Brave Yester Days could be considered a "best of" of sorts, but digs deeper into the out of print catalogue to make something special. I've always been a big fan, but have never made the attempt to seek out the hard to find rarities. So for those of you like myself that have followed the band through their progression, this is a special release. Those who only like the band's present sound will probably find little value here other than a history lesson of sorts. Collectors will be more than jovial with what we have here, as it's a finely represented and necessary chapter in Katatonia's history. Some of the most depressing metal awaits all who seek it, so look no further.
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