Summer Fun Time with Katatonia
With so many crowd-pleasing ditties to their repertoire such as “Saw You Drown,” “We Must Bury You,” and “Murder,” the members of Katatonia have established themselves as one of metal’s foremost acts of optimism and uplifting spirituality over the course of their nearly 30 year career. And as a band so clearly focused on positivity and hope, it is only fitting that the lyrical message of some of their songs be given a little more scrutiny under the bright lights of the happiest and sun-shiniest season of the year.
On sweltering heat and humidity:
“Let me die
Gateways of bereavement
A temple of guilt
Falling deep
Embraced in grief
My withering soul
Let me die”
—Gateways of Bereavement
On terribly long waits in line for popular attractions:
“In this dead hour
Here with you
Seconds are worthless
In this dead hour
When all is blank
Minutes are worthless”
—Dispossession
On forgetting to apply sunscreen during a day at the beach:
“Make a brand new vow
In the heat of an evening
The darkness swarms
I was nothing, ever
But red like the sun”
—Day and Then the Shade
On driving home after a weekend away while everyone else has dozed off:
“We drive all night
You’ve come a long way to find
Emptiness
We hear it all night
See it flicker overhead
So void of life”
—Inside the City of Glass
On family fist-fights breaking out at Disneyland:
“I see the bright lights
It’s the month of July
It’s violent here”
—July
On encountering hordes of boisterous preteens on summer break:
“No good can come of this
Whatsoever I can tell you
No good will ever come of this
The road to happiness I never knew”
—No Good Can Come of This
On picking a bad weekend to go camping:
“Grey park looks the same
And the days are pale
I never thought it would rain this way
I should be knowing that, it used to be me
Let’s stay here for a while
Is something gonna happen today?”
—Day
On friends who bail out last minute on weekend plans:
“To run along the freeway
To weigh one’s heart against the oncoming dark
You left me with the pills
We had plans but you couldn’t make it”
—Lethean
On entering a building with really good air conditioning:
“I am ice
I am clear
Let the world be cold”
—Deliberation
On dealing with relatives at an extended family BBQ, pool party, etc.:
“It churns the blood
The waves of dependence
Await to be slain
By memories of old”
—Serein
On staying up late at night drinking on the patio:
“Sounds of imbalance
Sleeps through the never
The artificial light source
Is creeping with flies”
—I Break
On the dread of returning to the grind after vacation reaches its end:
“Well I’m here
And summer is gone I hear
So pray for me
As I now leave your town”
—For My Demons
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