Few bands manage as impressive a change as Katatonia. The only other band to have transitioned as successfully from heavy, doom-laden metal to ethereal progressive rock is Anathema, a band with whom Katatonia share much in terms of ability to craft atmosphere and depth of feeling and this is nowhere better exemplified than on ‘Sanctitude’, a live concert recording of the band in stripped-down acoustic mode following the amazing success of the beautiful ‘dethroned and uncrowned’ album. Whereas for some bands going acoustic simply means turning off the distortion, for Katatonia going acoustic means reworking the sonfgs to imbue them with a whole new ambience and the arrangements here are the work of thoughtful and mature musicians reappraising their impressive back catalogue in the light of their increased experience and ability.
Whilst ‘dethroned…’ is well represented (five of the seventeen tracks on offer), what makes ‘Sanctified’ a worthwhile purchase in its own right is the time and effort the band have expended on older songs and the album opens with a stunning version of ‘in the white’ from the enigmatic masterpiece that is ‘the great cold distance’. Stripped down the song gains even greater resonance and, at the heart of it all, is Jonas Renkse whose voice just seems to get better with age. Despite being unable to unleash the death growls of the the past, Jonas’ decision to focus on clean vocals has seen him refining his technique and here his voice floats beautifully over the musical arrangement, always beckoning the listener deeper in. ‘Ambitions’ retains the grandeur of its ‘dethroned…’ version, whereas ‘teargas’ is impressively reworked to become a shimmering moment of pure beauty which not only retains, but arguably even improves upon the stately wonder of the original. Remarkably the band go all the way back to ‘the discouraged ones’ for ‘Gone’ which benefits from subtle electronic percussion and strong progressive overtones, not least the fact that Jonas’ vocals increasingly sound like Peter Gabriel. It’s an unexpected comparison, but with the music shorn of its metallic fire, the arrangements take pride of place and you start to realise how much Katatonia have in common with some of progressive rock’s most highly regarded artists. With Jonas keeping onstage announcements to a minimum, another song that sounds as if it is drawn from Peter Gabriel’s more oblique moments is ‘a darkness coming’ with its restrained percussion and gorgeous guitar work, but better still is ‘one year from now’, which has a creepy minor-key lilt to it and a dark sense of mystique that is only improved by the addition of some wonderfully understated slide guitar.
With seventeen tracks on offer, Katatonia actually managed to craft a surprisingly balanced and eclectic set list. Whereas a lesser band may have emphasised the recent acoustic work and a few hits, Katatonia took the path less travelled and opted to offer up music from across their back catalogue with only ‘dance of December souls’ left off the set list. The choices work well, and the sense of drama that was always inherent in Katatonia’s music is bought readily to the fore by these carefully rendered arrangements. Highlights include a wonderful ‘sleeper’ which has a strong rhythmic pulse and a thrilling performance from Jonas whilst ‘undo you’ and ‘lethean’ are similarly impressive, even in the light of studio versions, with the band putting heart and soul into their performance. As Jonas notes, there were nerves in crafting the set list and, indeed, in going out on stage in front of an audience with a full acoustic set, and yet as the band unleash even old songs like ‘day’ (another song that eschews death metal fury for Peter Gabriel-esque grandeur), it is clear that in connecting past and present in such a way, Katatonia have successfully demonstrated that strong vein of melody that has always lain at the heart of their work. ‘Idle blood’ from ‘night is the new day’ comes over well, although given how quietly melancholic that album already was, the change is less extreme than on tracks like ‘day’ and it leads nicely to the band’s ‘final song’, ‘unfurl’ which again benefits from subtle programmed drums and some lovely instrumental interplay between guitar, rich bass and synth. However, the band return for three more songs before the show is done, offering up ‘omerta’, ‘evidence’ and an amazing ‘the one you are looking for is not here’. Impressively the songs that from the encore were only done added to the set a few shows before (and in the case of ‘evidence’ the show before) in the light of fans left wanting more and yet they all feel like they were crafted with equal care (particularly a stunning ‘evidence’) to the main set and the encore provides a fitting conclusion to a unique and very special performance, particularly when the band bring out The Gathering’s Silje Wergeland for a gorgeous rendition of ‘the one you are looking for is not here’.
A band who have repeatedly shown the benefit of musical evolution, katatonia are a musical delight. This lush, progressive concert highlights just how good Katatonia have always been at arranging their material and it is a wonderful chance to hear a series of classic tracks filtered through the light of three albums (‘the great cold distance’, ‘night is the new day’ and ‘dead end kings’) that can all be considered modern-day masterpieces and the pinnacle of the band’s musical evolution. The key here is not complexity, or even spectacular technical ability (although Katatonia are more than capable musicians), rather the key is heart-felt honesty and powerful song-writing that lodges deep inside your consciousness. Anyone who loves music (regardless of genre) should be able to relate to and appreciate the depth of emotional honesty on display here and ‘sanctitude’ feels like the crowning glory that can be appended to the spectacular run of albums with which Katatonia have gifted us of late.
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