Katatonia are a doom metal success story, and it started with Dance of December Souls. So it's only natural that such an album would inspire several understudies, the most recent of which is Ablaze in Hatred.

The Finnish which should tell you a number of things, doom is about as regionally different as death metal is) doomsters' debut, Deceptive Awareness, isn't necessarily album of the year, but it'll please several fans of Daylight Dies, Swallow the Sun, and of course, earlier Katatonia; The vocals especially are amongst the Swallow the Sun variety, relying on atmosphere-intensive melodic death / doom that conjures forth epic feelings of a vindictive depression, and they do so well.

These songs bring a very heavy feeling to your heart. Their only real problem is that the music, though weighty, tends to meld together after awhile, feeling like it could've been one fifty minute-long song instead of splicing it in to seven.

Regardless, Deceptive Awareness is a decent album that should tide everyone over until Swallow the Sun's next release. (7/10)