RAPTURE „Futile”

GENRE: KATATONIA DOOM METAL
INFO : DEBUT ALBUM

The main point of this review and probably the whole idea behind this album is that “Futile” is the excellent album KATATONIA has forgot to record. RAPTURE comes from Finland and while none of the members of the band has anything to do with KATATONIA, they have made a carbon copy of it's “Brave Murder Day” and “Sounds of Decay” era style. And it is fantastic! As for musical elements and performance, let's say that KATATONIA and RAPTURE differ in a similar way that Coca-Cola and Pepsi Cola do – there are people who can tell them apart, but I can't, and both do the trick. Try, for example, to listen to “Rainroom” from “Brain Murder Day” and then to any song from “Futile” and see if you could tell that they were made by different people. This is the best KATATONIA rip off I have heard yet, but risking to be burned at the stake for heresy, I must say that I find it more appealing than the “original”. Why? Well, as first, production is clear and loud and the sound has more power, as is to be expected from a Finnish band (so many great studios out there).

As second, this album has grown on me very fast. While all of the songs are in the same style, it doesn't bother the listener as the next song continues with deepening the emotional abyss created by the previous one. With KATATONIA there were always some small parts that I felt discomfort when listening and “Futile” is highly enjoyable (when I say enjoyable, it means depressive, but pleasant to listen) all the way through, without any flaws in the production, songwriting, performance or lyrics. Everything is perfect. Therefore, in all of the places in this review where I mention that RAPTURE is imitating this great Swedish band, consider it a compliment. The bottom line is that KATATONIA made a path and then has abandoned it going in some other direction. Many have tried to claim those abandoned grounds, but RAPTURE wins the crown fairly and squarely. They possess a great deal of talent since these songs aren't put together from bits and pieces of KATATONIA songs. “Futile” features completely new songs that could be some of the best KATATONIA songs had they recorded them instead of RAPTURE. Songwriting formula is still simple – very depressive and melodic yet simple lead guitar riffs, repeating over and over again altered only for a tone or two to follow the change of chords in harmony, conveying the same emotion of melancholy as those created by a genius Blackheim, bass and distorted rhythm guitar arrangement layered over the mid-tempo pop rock drumming. Nothing very complex in structure, but rich in emotion – the whole beauty is in the simplicity that evades the reason and invades the heart. With just few tones and chord changes (depressive minor-key chord progression) these two bands paint the picture of solitude and despair. These sounds mixed blend together creating a fantastic atmospheric wall and the vocals are laid over the top of it.

Except KATATONIA and RAPTURE, maybe the only band that has succeeded in creating such level of ambience is Swedish GODGORY. Excellent soundtrack for a rainy autumn afternoon or a lonely cold morning. They do not sloooooow down or detune their instruments or use violins and female vocals in the vein of too many doom bands, and they also do not use electronics, samples, loops, techno rhythms or voice effects like trendy bands. To be honest, this music contains some amount of pop music style featured on mainstream radio stations or MTV, Viva, RTL etc… (mostly in thanks to the drumming and bass arrangement, and the fact that the band is from Finland, where they have created a whole new kind of pop gothic metal) but, the overall sound could be defined as melancholic pop doom metal (as it was establish by aforementioned role model) and this is the best amount of modern and poppy brought into metal to sound right. If it was more conventional doom metal it would sound sterile, and more modern approach would kill the melancholy and sadness. Drums, two guitars, bass and vocals fulfill the sound. The info says that there was a guest keyboardist, but it somehow evaded my attention. Keyboards are either too deep in the background or only present for a few brief moments and thus not making a big influence in the overall sound.

The vocals on this album are no worse than those found on “Brave Murder Day” by Mikael Åkerfeldt from Opeth, who was a substitute singer until Jonas Renkse recovered his voice and even resemble them, on purpose or accidentally, I don't know. Most of the time vocal style is growling except several whispered/spoken parts and a track titled “Someone I (Don't) Know” where it is clean voice in the first half of the song. Singing is powerful and suits the music just fine. Lyrics are gloomy as expected, I found them well fitted with the emotion of the album, but here's the URL where you can read them if needed to estimate that segment of the album before buying:
http://www.darklyrics.com/lyrics/rapture/futile.html Here's a little excerpt:

While The World Sleeps

Early morning rain
An eternal sleepless 4 AM
Waking up to silence
Into a slow gray whatever
Everything's blind
In the sleep of the lonely
In a quiet blue current
That's slowly creeping
Creeping
Getting used to seeing
Just trying to keep moving
Is it really this cold in here?
Or is it just me?

All of the songs are of equal quality from intro to the last track, there are no fillers, but after a several listens “While The World Sleeps” and “This Is Where I Am ” made the greatest impression on me, and they show what this album is all about. However, it is best to listen through the whole album at once. As a matter of fact, I found it very easy and enjoying to listen it several times in a row (for example, while writing this review). It doesn't exhaust the listener as most doom albums do. Very beautiful, well performed, depressing and still warm in the same time, recommended to all KATATONIA fans out there. It is not original, but it captures the essence that made KATATONIA so special and is justified in some way, because KATATONIA has changed their music since then and there wasn't anything worthy enough to fill their shoes. “Futile” is RAPTURE's debut album (from 2001) and they have at this time one more release titled “Songs For The Withering” that I haven't heard yet. If you would like to know more about the band, visit www.rapture.tk . Finally, my two cents compressed into one sentence would be: excellent album, worth owning if you are into melancholic metal music.

note: 8.5/10

Tracklist

1. INTRO 2:25
2. TO FORGET 6:23
3. THIS IS WHERE I AM 5:44
4. THE FALL 4:48
5. WHILE THE WORLD SLEEP 5:00
6. FUTILE 6:45
7. SOMEONE I (DON'T) KNOW 7:42
8. (ABOUT) LEAVING 8:01
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TOTAL ALBUM TIME: 46:48