If I sow a wind now, I will reap a storm

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Katatonia's latest album Dead End Kings has rightly received wide critical acclaim, including rave reviews by the BBC and The Guardian. Inasmuch as it is interesting to see mainstream sites acknowledging that there is much more important music than the usual pack of style over substance, it seems to me that what matters the most remains unnoticed. Let me first turn to the band's guitarist and co-founder Anders Nyström, who was asked in an interview with the webzine Metalship about the meaning of the album's title, and replied as follows (my emphasis):

It hints at the position we’re currently at in our lives and career. We’ve been going for more than 20 years now, which is a long time indeed. And because of that fact many people expect us to be more successful in terms of fame and fortune. What they don’t realize is that just keeping a band alive for 20 years is the achievement of success itself and also having the firm belief to follow your own vision without compromising and conforming to other people’s demands and expectations would make you a king in what people would just define as a dead end. 

Dead End Kings is Katatonia's most progressive sounding effort, and it displays the merits of Jonas Renkse and Anders Nyström's songwriting to the fullest; but most of all, it is a celebration of the mentality outlined in the above excerpt. Katatonia are among the doom metal/gothic rock pioneers, and have contributed much to the genre's artistic integrity and musical evolution in the underground during the past two decades. And in this respect, Dead End Kings is more of an alternate version of success, understood as one's ability to express themselves on their own terms.

Last but not least, the album's artwork is by Travis Smith, a pivotal illustrator as well as a long term collaborator of the band; his images are available here. And the title of this post is of course a quote from the lyrics of The Racing Heart, my favourite track on Dead End Kings.

White sun
Spring of wealth
Come for a good time
It's not what I have
Vibrate
Life on the line
My racing heart
Your vacant mind 
 
If I sow a wind now, I will reap a storm
You saw me sliding away from the sun
And tomorrow who will come
And put their hand over mine
Mine with the burning shape of a gun 

Washed out
Soul of money
Couldn't keep the fire
It's not what I do
Vibrate
Life on the line
My racing heart
It's all I find 

Inside the sickness
Rest
Inside the sickness
Rest 

If I sow a wind now, I will reap a storm
You saw me sliding away from the sun
And tomorrow who will come
And put their hand over mine
Mine with the burning shape of a gun