Katatonia - Old Heart Falls

The weighted clouds coming by
Has me looking
Right here under the sky
And I left my home
Passed the evening fires
In the blink of an eye
I had closed the door behind me

The vapour of old love
Will transfigure through a veil of clarity
I sense my grave way below the mire

Sorrow will find you
Its voice has given way to mine
Heart pumps death into our heredity
Who wants to come with me?

For every dream that is left behind me
I take a bow
With every war that will rage inside me
I hear the sound
Of another day in this vanishing life
Returned to dust
And every chance I've pushed away
Into the night

Time won't let go
It's got you in debt now
And it's got me crawling all the way back to the start
I swear that I saw you there
Your hands were reaching out for mine

Sorrow will find you

For every dream that is left behind me
I take a bow
With every war that will rage inside me
I hear the sound
Of another day in this vanishing life
Returned to dust
And every chance I've pushed away
Into the night

I sense my grave way below the mire

 - Katatonia (2016)

It only seems reasonable that maybe an introduction to Katatonia is in order.  They were originally formed in the early 1990's in Sweden as a death/doom metal band.  Initially it was intended as only a studio project, but they soon started touring.  There were constant lineup changes throughout the 90's.  At one point Mikael Akerfeldt (Opeth/Bloodbath) was a member.  The sound evolved through the years, going from death and doom to the progressive and melodic sound they are known for today.  "Old Heart Falls" was the first single from their tenth studio album, The Fall of Hearts.

Just as in the previous entry for "The Parting," these lyrics are packed with imagery.  As the title suggests, this seems as an old person looking back on his or her life and taking stock of that life once lived.  This isn't the life flashing before the eyes just prior to death, here we see that death is imminent, yet still not due to make the visit ("... another day in this vanishing life"). But there is also the possibility that one may not be so old and death not so imminent and that our protagonist is merely coming to grips with something and realizing the fruitlessness of holding onto something that can never go anywhere.  There is a fair amount of regret, both in the words and in Jonas Renske's singing tone.

There are two lines, however, that tie it all together - "Heart pumps death into our heredity/Who wants to come with me?"  Is this a suicide note?  It's in the middle of the song.  This is typically where the listener's emotional reaction would be the strongest and seems a throwaway lyric, meant to keep the lyrical rhythm flowing.  It's the second time we're introduced to death in the song.  What really drives it home are the 2 lines immediately preceding - "Sorrow will find you/It's voice has given way to mine."  "Sorrow" is echoed again later in the song, but itself.  This has the effect of either tricking the listener into disregarding the suicide note portion or, more likely, adding to the emotional weight of the decision.

What do you think?  Do you even like the song?  Leave your own thoughts in the comments below.

Dark Fortress - Wraith

A specter writhes
Too faint for mortal eyes
A mere ululation

A deathless witness
Lurid in demise
Spawned from pain and tribulation

Unsound
Undead

Evanescing
An orphaned want, marooned
In disembodied mayhem, howling

Just a shadow
Waning with the moon
Ever yearning, ever prowling

Doomed to linger, a wraith in a withered world
You will never sleep again
Lifeless eyes, forever haunted by the void
Gaze upon the tomb of man

Cold and dried up
The ravaged plains lie dead
Buried ruins sing of the end

Faces fade away
Frozen in convulsion
In broken temples, gods quietly die

And gales roam unrestrained
Lick the horror from revulsion
Beneath the weeping scars in the sky

Doomed to linger, a wraith in a withered world
You will never sleep again
Lifeless eyes, forever haunted by the void
Gaze upon the tomb of man

Cold and dried up
The ravaged plains lie dead
Buried ruins sing of the end

Dark Fortress is a black metal band hailing from Germany.  The above song appears on their 6th studio album, "Ylem." Mortal provided the vocals for this song.  This song, and the album as whole, represents a bit of a departure from their earlier efforts, which were more in line with standard black metal fare.  This particular song features clean vocals throughout (ironically considered blasphemy in black metal) and a very melodic structure.

My initial thoughts turn to Ondine's Curse.  This isn't about the medical condition, but the mythology behind it.  In European folklore, Ondine was a water nymph who fell in love with a mortal man.  Upon being spurned by him, she cursed him so that he would need to think about every breath he took for the rest of his life, meaning that if he slept, he would die.  "Doomed to linger, a wraith in a withered world," the refrain, is of course, the catalyst of that thought.

The rest of the world can quickly darken to one who knows their own death is imminent.  They begin to question the point of everything else going on around them.  Sometimes they take life (as a whole) far beyond to what could be a perfectly logical conclusion - that all human life is going to die, whether through intrinsic gradualism or external catastrophe.  Everything in my view of the song revolves around the refrain, especially the line, "you will never sleep again."

It's easy to dismiss these lyrics as standard black metal fare, especially given that a lot of past songs dealt with apocalyptic visions.  This song, however, has enough ambiguity that one could simply divine superficial meaning, as I just noted, or give it a deeper meaning, such as what people are doing to the planet, etc.  Dark Fortress, at least on this album, does not go over-the-top with the whole Satan My Master shtick common with other black metal bands.  "Ylem," lyrically, seems concerned more with the pagan culture of their homeland, and what they see as an extermination of it.  In this way one could see Ondine as the index of their homeland, being spurned by its people, and that one day she will deliver unto them the same curse that befell her mortal lover.

Whatever meaning you ascribe to these lyrics (feel free to do so in the comments), sometimes it's just nice to enjoy the haunting emotions put forth by the song, both lyrically and musically.

The Parting

In the weak light
I saw you becoming the lie
Taking it all for granted
Like freedom
It's something you'll never have

Forget what's said
And hear me sing to you
How I've set out to kill my soul
The nightward ways
The labor it brings
The verdict that I came for
Migration's song

Patterns of death overwhelms
Fixation rise
I came along the way
And came to a conclusion
The indifferent sky
Is made of lead and so beautiful
Submission
Come to will

In the weak light
I saw you becoming the lie
Taking it all for granted
Like freedom
It's something you'll never have
The parting
End origin
Fade into earth

Times ablaze
Under the flags we chose
Denied my step and froze my heart
Yet I stare
With nothing left to do
The verdict that I came for
Migration's song


Patterns of death overwhelms
Fixation rise
I came along the way
And came to a conclusion
The indifferent sky
Is made of lead and so beautiful
Submission
Come to will

Take your well deserved step
Into darkness
I'll become your eyes
You have no other
We have to walk along this wire
Trust the one that never trusted you

In the weak light
I saw you becoming the lie
Taking it all for granted
Like freedom
It's something you'll never have
The parting
End origin
Fade into earth

It's a revival of sorts.  I've wanted to keep this going for a long time, but life seems to step in when inspiration strikes.  As a creative myself, I need to keep writing.  So, back into the music we go.

I got to see Katatonia open for Devin Townsend in 2012.  All I can say is that was a beautiful experience.  This song originally appeared on their 2012 album, "Dead End Kings." The band followed up a year later with "Dethroned and Uncrowned," an all-acoustic rendition of "Dead End Kings." Katatonia opened the show with this song.

It's hard to deconstruct this song as it is densely packed with imagery.  Jonas Renkse has a knack for writing some very melancholy, yet complex, lyrics.  Since contemporaneous art is often a personal reaction, one can only wonder what happened to him in his younger years. The only thing I can do at this point is offer a more visceral reaction.

A lot of the lyrics echo some things that were said to me, both before and after the song was published.  "I saw you becoming the lie" is one that holds a particular power over me.  Although the emotions are ephemeral, the memories are not when they are triggered.  It was taken for granted, however.  And freedom, well, there's a price for that, and most aren't ready to pay.

There are also promises in the song...  becoming the eyes and walking the wire together.  While those don't exactly echo things said to me, they do serve as stand-ins.  Only time will tell if those promises are kept.  Until then, we go on, living our ephemeral existence while sometimes pondering an alternate timeline.

I realize this may be a little much with which to start a revival of this blog, but this came up today in my iTunes shuffle and I just sat back and closed my eyes while it played.  It's a song that has great personal meaning to me.  I prefer the acoustic version, which is linked below.



I'd love to hear your thoughts after listening to the song.  Please feel free to comment below.

On a Wicked Night

Hey my lady in black
Now I see you're back
Haven't seen you for a while
Kinda miss your deadly smile

On a windy night
On a windy night
On a wicked night
On a wicked night

Hey my lady in death
Have you come for my last breath?
I never thought
That we were through
I bet you knew I knew it too
I never thought
That we were through
I bet you knew that I knew it too

On a windy night
On a windy night
On a wicked night
On a wicked night

Hey my lady in black
How nice to have you back
I haven't seen you for a while
I kinda miss your deadly smile

Hey my lady in death
I see you've come for my last breath
I never thought that we were through
I bet you thought I never knew yeah


 - Danzig (2010)

In 2010 I had the privilege of attending the Blackest of the Black tour stop here in Houston, TX.  The lineup was incredible - Withered, Toxic Holocaust, Possessed, Marduk, and of course, Danzig.  To be honest, I was a little wary of seeing Glenn Danzig live, as in 2008 I saw him live (for the very first time) and that performance left a lot to be desired.  In 2010, however, Glenn was on point and delivered one hell of a performance.   But that's enough for this trip down memory lane.

Deth Red Sabaoth is the most recent album from Danzig, the band fronted by Glenn Danzig, who also spent time as the frontman for punk acts Samhain and The Misfits.  "On a Wicked Night" was either the first or second single off the album.  It was one of his most popular songs since "Can't Speak" from Danzig IV.  

I'm not going to lie - Glenn Danzig probably won't go down in history as a master lyricist.  Many of his songs deal with evil, sex, evil sex...  you get the picture.  As such, I'll let this one speak for itself in terms of meaning.  What do you all think?