This is the second offering from Katatonia (not counting the "Jhva Elohim Meth...the Revival" demo-on-CD offering), and it's not really that far off the mark from their debut, "Dance Of December Souls". Once again, it's gothic tinged doomdeath with black metal leanings, and once again it's of the highest quality. The thing that really separates Katatonia from the rest of the flock is the unbelievable amount of emotion they manage to convey...these songs are genuinely gloomy, and even when the band decides to break into a mid-paced tempo, none of that sorrowful feel is lost. Of course, Katatonia also have a nasty habit of recycling riffs over and over again (I have a theory that Blackheim has only ever written 6 riffs in his entire life, and that all he really does is rearrange what order they'll appear in and whether or not to just "play the riff backwards"). Anyway, recycling or not, this is a fucking masterpiece - I even like it better than the debut, and not counting just how impressed I was with their subsequent release ("Brave Murder Day"), I'd say this is the bands best release to date. There's no need to really talk of the production - it's impressive and fits the music perfectly, but no one buys Katatonia albums for the production - we buy them for the unearthly mood it creates around us as we play them, and "For Funerals To Come" delivers this to us in spades (especially the last "experimental" track "Epistel", which has a very creepy and unsettling aura to it).

Completely essential listening, and luckily for those of you with no desire to pay import prices for the original Avantgarde version, you can find this entire EP stuck onto the domestic release of "Brave Murder Day" (sans artwork of course) on Century Media...

© 1999 chorazaim