Dead End Kings

Dead End Kings is Katatonia's ninth full-length album. It was released on 27 August 2012 in Europe and 28 August in the U.S. through Peaceville Records. Like all Katatonia releases, the album was written primarily by founding members Jonas Renkse and Anders Nyström. The band went through a number of lineup changes, making the album the first to feature bassist Niklas Sandin, the only album to feature second guitarist Per Eriksson, and the last to feature drummer Daniel Liljekvist.

Dead End Kings
Studio album by
Katatonia
Released27 August 2012
RecordedFebruary - May 2012
StudioGhost Ward & The City of Glass Studios[1]
GenreProgressive metal[2]
Length48:47
LabelPeaceville
ProducerJonas Renkse, Anders Nyström
Katatonia chronology
Night Is the New Day
(2009)		 Dead End Kings
(2012)		 The Fall of Hearts
(2016)

Themes and composition

Multiple tracks, including "Buildings", allude to abandoned city scenes, which were inspired by Renkse's and Nyström's visiting of abandoned train tunnels and hospitals in abandoned villages in Sweden.[3] The album is not politically-themed in the conventional sense of promoting ideologies or presenting solutions, but rather contemplates and laments the poor state of the world due to modern politics in general.[3]

Journalists have noted a similarity in sound to the work of American progressive metal band Tool, a comparison Renkse refers to as accidental but flattering.[3]

Reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
About.com[4]
AllMusic[5]
Drowned in Sound[6]
The Guardian[7]
Sputnikmusic[8]

The album was generally well received by critics. AllMusic praised the diverse and layered sound production on the album, concluding that "With its various parts, ever-shifting dynamics, and blazing instrumental interludes, it sends the set off with a nearly majestic bang. Dead End Kings is uncompromising in its musical excellence, bleak vision, and dark, hunted beauty; it extends Katatonia's reach exponentially.[5] Kyle Ward, staff reviewer from Sputnik Music, strongly praised the album for being the perfect culmination of everything the band had strived to become after moving away from their original death metal sound in the late 1990s, citing the albums high production values, layered sound and "emotional sincerity" for the album being a "massive success".[8]

Track listing

All lyrics are written by Jonas Renkse, except "Undo You" and "The Act of Darkening" by Anders Nyström.

No.TitleMusicLength
1."The Parting"Renkse4:52
2."The One You Are Looking For Is Not Here" (feat. Silje Wergeland)Renkse3:52
3."Hypnone"Renkse4:07
4."The Racing Heart"Renkse4:06
5."Buildings"Nyström3:28
6."Leech"Renkse4:23
7."Ambitions"Renkse5:07
8."Undo You"Nyström4:56
9."Lethean"Per Eriksson, Renkse4:39
10."First Prayer"Nyström, Renkse4:28
11."Dead Letters"Nyström4:49
Total length:48:47
Limited Deluxe Book Edition Bonus Tracks
No.TitleMusicLength
12."Second"Renkse, Nyström3:34
13."The Act of Darkening"Nyström5:55
Total length:57:47

Personnel

References
  1. Katatonia - Dead End Kings on metal-archives.com Retrieved on 23 May 2016
  2. Lawson, Dom (23 August 2012). "Katatonia: Dead End Kings – review" – via The Guardian.
  3. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2016-12-20. Retrieved 2016-12-06.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. Bowar, Chad. "Katatonia - Dead End Kings Review". About.com. Retrieved 10 January 2014.
  5. Thom Jurek. "Katatonia: Dead End Kings". Allmusic. Retrieved September 27, 2012.
  6. Falcone, Jon (August 19, 2012). "Katatonia Dead End Kings". Drowned in Sound. Retrieved 10 January 2014.
  7. Lawson, Dom (August 23, 2012). "Katatonia: Dead End Kings – review". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 January 2014.
  8. Ward, Kyle (August 27, 2012). "Katatonia Dead End Kings". Sputnik Music. Retrieved 10 January 2014.
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