KATATONIA · Mnemosynean | MEDIABOOK 2CD

Heavy media book double CD.

Background information about 'Mnemosynean'

There is a particular kind of beauty that only Katatonia can conjure — the sound of a grey Nordic sky pressing down on a city at dusk, all melancholy melody and bruised, shimmering guitars. "Mnemosynean" is the band's love letter to the deep cuts, the B-sides, the bonus tracks and the remixes that never made it onto a proper album, and honestly, it plays like a fully realised record in its own right. Named after the Greek goddess of memory, it digs through decades of rarities and comes up gleaming.

What strikes you first is how coherent the whole thing feels. The brooding "Sistere" and the hypnotic "Wide Awake In Quietus" sit perfectly beside the aching "Ashen" and the fragile "Sold Heart", while "Dissolving Bonds" and "Unfurl" show off the band's knack for a chorus that lodges itself somewhere behind your ribs. The second disc is where things get genuinely fascinating — the Urban Dub of "In The White", the Opium Dub of "My Twin", and Krister Linder's 2012 remix of "Soil's Song" strip these songs down and rebuild them in strange, gorgeous new shapes. Frank Default's remixes are worth the price of admission alone, and the closing "Hypnone (Frank Default Hypnocadence Mix)" drifts off like smoke from a candle you forgot you lit.

For anyone who has worn out their copies of "The Great Cold Distance" or "Night Is The New Day", this is a treasure chest. It is the sound of a band refusing to let their quieter moments disappear.

For fans of: Opeth, Anathema, Porcupine Tree, The Gathering, Paradise Lost

Other Versions

BLACK 3LP · 39,99 €

Track listing

CD 1:

1. Vakaren
2. Sistere
3. Wide Awake In Quietus
4. Night Comes Down
5. Second
6. The Act Of Darkening
7. Ashen
8. Sold Heart
9. Displaced
10. Dissolving Bonds
11. Unfurl
12. Code Against The Code

CD 2:

1. Wait Outside
2. Sulfur
3. March
4. O How I Enjoy The Light
5. Help Me Disappear
6. Fractured
7. No Devotion
8. Quiet World
9. Scarlet Heavens
10. In The White (Urban Dub)
11. My Twin (Opium Dub)
12. Soil's Song (Krister Linder 2012 Remix)
13. Day And Then The Shade (Frank Default Remix)
14. Idle Blood (Linje 14)
15. Hypnone (Frank Default Hypnocadence Mix)

Manufacturer: Edel Music & Entertainment GmbH, Neumühlen 17, 22763 Hamburg, Germany, Contact: www.edel.com