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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Simply amazing, June 1, 2004
Being bored to tears of the American music scene, listening to pretty much only Tool, I came across Opeth last year and immediately bought all of their CDs and have listened to little else for many months. Since then I have been scouring the internet, when I had a chance, hoping to find another Opeth. This has proved far more daunting that I originally thought it would. I have searched for, and listened to, internet samples of scores of bands and just have not found anything that compares to the brilliance of Opeth and Tool. Don't get me wrong, I have found several solid bands in genres such as death metal, gothic metal, power metal, black metal, etc, etc...whatever you want to call them, mostly from northern Europe. But nothing as addictive as the two afore-mentioned bands. But last week I came across Katatonia and thought I had seen an Opeth member wearing one of their T-shirts so of course I had to check them out. I went out and bought Viva Emptiness and it is all I have listened to for a week now. I am a big Cure fan, especially their more depressing stuff, like Pornography and Faith and Disintigration. I liken this to the Cure on steroids. Meloncholy Metal? Whatever you want to call it, it is awesome stuff. Jonas' voice is perfect and the music is fantastically dismal yet dense and catchy at the same time. Check this group out. I must warn though that I have listened to a lot of their stuff now and really only like the latest releases that sound more like this CD. I don't really care a lot for their older death metal material. It is OK but nothing stellar in that genre...and the death vocals are kind of weak in my opinion, but of course after listening to Opeth all other death metal style vocals sound weak I guess. If anyone can growl like Akerfeldt, I have yet to hear them.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Katatonia : "Viva Emptiness", July 10, 2004
This is the first Katatonia release I've purchaced. I am very impressed. "Viva Emptiness" has a very emotional feel to it, and the songs really grow on you. Iwas very sceptical at first listen, but over time, I've come to appreciate this, and hold it in very high regard.... There is no doubt that Katatonia knows how to attract various listeners of different Metal styles. I've been a metalhead for over 20 years now, and I've experimented with almost every scene from Maiden to Rush to Opeth to Motely Crue to The Cure. I'd have to say that Katatonia is a great blend of all types, and if you have an open mind towards different types, you should find "Viva Emptiness" not only unique, but very enjoyable... Enjoy....
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another solid album from Katatonia that continues their evolution., November 16, 2006
"Viva Emptiness", Katatonia's sixth full length album, is really a continuation of its predecessor "Last Fair Deal Gone Down", with a few slight adjustments. Considering how much I love that album, this is a good thing in my book. They took a lot of the elements that worked on the previous album and have spiced things up a little to give "Viva Emptiness" its own identity. At this stage of their career, the Swedes can be labelled as a heavy rock band with elements of metal rather than a metal band with rock influences. Long gone are the death metal influences of yesteryear to be replaced with a much more commercially viable, yet still suffocatingly dreary (in a good way) atmosphere.
So what are these little adjustments I mentioned above? For starters, there's almost a nu-metal feel to some of these tracks. Now don't get me wrong, I'd be pretty upset if Katatonia started sounding like Slipknot and they are a long way from doing so. Yet I can't deny that tracks such as "Wealth" and "Will I Arrive", with there shredding riffs and friendly clean verses bring that thought into my head. But then "Viva Emptiness" is filled with so many variations that I can't really apply that label to much else on the album. It's also noticeable that they have included far more swear words for impact than on previous releases and in general, I feel more anger in these tracks than the normal desolation and loss that pervades most of their material. But this is without a doubt a Katatonia album from start to finish. The vulnerable, almost awkward lyrics remain while Jonas' vocals once again improving. The gorgeous guitar melodies, while used far more sparingly, are still here and the newfound percussion addition of the last album continues in full force. Many bands have copied Katatonia's sound over the years, but none have been able to keep up with their evolution.
So while I have a lot of good things to say about "Viva Emptiness", I must admit that a couple of tracks are just not quite up to their normally consistently high quality. "One Year From Now" and "Omerta" in particular are throw away tracks in my opinion and drop this album slightly below "Last Fair Deal Gone Down". The highlights for me would have to be "Criminals, "Wealth" and "Complicity" along with opener "Ghost of the Sun", but there's over 50 minutes of material to dig into here.
"Viva Emptiness" is another solid album from Katatonia that further evolves their sound towards the mainstream, while never letting go of the intense nature of its content. They are a truly unique band that has miraculously kept the majority of their fan-base while completely, yet gradually, changing their sound over the years to something almost completely unrelated to its humble foundation. The reason they've been able to do this, is due to the natural progression that has occurred. The members have a real understanding of the core themes and components that the fans love and have the integrity to never alienate them while consistently challenging themselves. I thank them for it with every album!
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