Katatonia & Cult Of Luna Co-Headline The El Rey

By Andrew Bansal
[Live photos by Kaley Nelson] 

October 6th 2013, El Rey Theatre, Los Angeles CA: Swedish metal band Katatonia have made somewhat of a habit of touring North America, as they’re just about finishing up their third tour here within a year. On this occasion, they’re on a short 12-show co-headline run with fellow Swedes Cult Of Luna along with support acts Intronaut and Tesseract, and the touring party visited the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles yesterday for what promised to be an intriguing night of diverse music. It being a Sunday, they did the right thing by starting the show as early as 6:45, and even though it took a little while for the atmosphere inside the venue to truly build up to its full potential, for a Sunday the turnout was good and things were all set to begin as the curtains drew apart for the first band to take the stage.

British modern prog metal band Tesseract played a 25-minute set that I honestly have mixed feelings about. I was clearly not able to appreciate the material from their recently released second studio album ‘Altered State’, and my issue wasn’t so much the music, but it was the vocal style. As you might know very well, I’m a huge fan and supporter of clean singing in metal, but the singing on the Altered State songs wasn’t my cup of tea whatsoever. Ashe O’Hara is a great singer no doubt, but the manner in which the vocals have been written for this new album, it’s simply not my thing. Other than that, I enjoyed the songs from the debut album ‘One’ very much and I thought Ashe did great justice to the different vocal stylings on those songs. Despite the weird shift in musical direction, I would say Tesseract is still an excellent band with a great group of musicians, and this wasn’t a bad set by any means.

Tesseract photo gallery:

Next to hit the stage was Los Angeles’ very own progressive metal band Intronaut, who began their set at 7:30 and played what I can only attempt to put here in words. I’ve followed and tracked the fortunes of this band for more than three years now, but this was the first time I saw them since the release of their fourth studio album ‘Habitual Levitations (Instilling Words With Tones)’, and to put it mildly, it was a mind-bending experience. I expected them to sound great, but they certainly surpassed and exceeded all my expectations, by a long shot. The quartet led by guitarist/vocalist Sacha Dunable absolutely nailed every aspect of their performance in this set and put forth a fantastic exhibition of musicianship. Based on this set, I would go as far as calling them the Pink Floyd of modern metal, and it’s only a matter of time before they establish their stronghold on this sub-genre of music and prove that they’re worthy of the title.

Intronaut photo gallery:

Next up was one of our co-headliners for the night, Cult Of Luna. Judging by the conversations I had with people in the queue before the show and with those inside the venue, it was clear that this was the band most of them had come to see. This seven-piece post/progressive metal group hadn’t toured the States for the past eight years, so the hype surrounding this LA appearance of theirs was quite huge. Unfortunately, their 75-minute set turned out to be amongst the longest 75 minutes of my life as I really did not enjoy their performance even to the slightest. For a seven-piece band having three guitarists, they sounded incredibly weak and in spite of their artsy lyrical and musical themes, I could not feel any emotion or expression coming through their music. There was no melody, power or strength at all, and the set dragged on at snail’s pace. I tried to run away from their music, but there was simply nowhere to go. Upon exiting the main concert hall and entering the patio, I was engulfed in second hand smoke, so I had no choice but to trudge my way back in. I found myself completely bewildered when people walked up to me after their set and said, ‘Oh, they were so awesome!!’ I don’t get it and I don’t see what’s great about this band. They appear to come with a different approach but at the end of the day their music is really nothing unique or special and I can name plenty of other bands that do it better. The fact that most people in this venue enjoyed Cult Of Luna’s abysmal set remains a confounding mystery to me.

Sadly, a lot of people decided to leave after Cult Of Luna were done, and all I would say about that is, those who left missed out on an absolutely great set by Katatonia. Los Angeles folks might feel jaded seeing this band every few months, but to me their live sound just keeps getting better and better every time I see them. Compared to the very first time I saw them at the Whisky in 2010, then at the Mayan in 2011 and the Roxy earlier this year, this was by far their most cohesive performance and their impact on the audience (those who wisely chose to stay) was there to be felt, seen and every song was followed by genuine applause. People bag Katatonia for being a ‘low-energy’ band but from my own experience I can tell you that I ended up headbanging during their set almost as much as did for bands like Saxon, Orange Goblin and Holy Grail who played in LA earlier in the week. The slow, heavy riffs by Katatonia guitarists Anders Nystrom and Per Eriksson simply compelled me to do so, and their contribution on backing vocals also added great depth to the sound. Of course, lead vocalist Jonas Renkse was in his element, and these three in the forefront were ably assisted by the rhythm section of Daniel Liljekvist (drums) and Niklas Sandin (bass).

The El Rey’s setting suited the band perfectly and the backdrop of the ‘Dead End Kings’ artwork combined by the minimal lighting made for a truly dark atmosphere that went along excellently with the expression of the tunes Katatonia chose to play in this set. Obviously, they had to do something different with the set list since they’ve played in LA so much recently, and they sure did. The new material was very much present but they brought out some obscure older songs as well, and overall gave their fans a night to remember. For me, ‘Soil’s Song’ was the best piece even though the entire set was a highlight in itself. In stark contrast to Cult Of Luna’s set which I couldn’t wait for to finish, Katatonia’s set seemed to go by before I even realized it, and I wish they had stuck around for at least a couple more tunes. Nonetheless, this was a fabulous set by Katatonia, and I will have absolutely no complaints if they keep visiting LA as regularly as they’ve done of late.

Related – Interview: Katatonia Drummer Talks About Touring, Remix Album & More

Katatonia photo gallery:

Set List:
1. Ashen
2. Hypnone
3. In the White
4. Ambitions
5. My Twin
6. Lethean
7. Quiet World
8. Undo You
9. Ghost of the Sun
10.Leech
11.Dissolving Bonds
12.Forsaker
13.Soil’s Song
14.July
15.Unfurl

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