Music:
This album is truly fantastic. Though many people throw Dream Theater as a parameter for comparison, I couldn't disagree more. It is fairly hard, but without the overwrought technical fireworks that DT displays phrase after phrase (which also makes it exhausting to listen to). Katatonia is lush, their instrumentation very tactfully orchestrated, and sensible (think PT in that regard). The music certainly isn't simple, but nothing in particular screams "look at my chops, and disregard the lack of song writing skills." These guys flat-out know how to write well composed music, and they know how to play it very well. I would certainly call them a healthy mix between Porcupine Tree's hardest music, and Opeth's middle ground material (Katatonia is a metal band, but they don't approach the speed metal or growling that Opeth engages in). The music and lyrics are dark, but not "I want to slit my wrist now that I've heard this album" depressing. It's good modern metal with a progressive twist.
Highlights on the album are:
Soil's Song
Consternation
July
All of the songs are very good, but the above are great.
Mix:
Much left to be desired. Though the mix isn't bad by any means, Bergen could have done much more. The rears generally serve to "fill out" the sound in the space, which works well in metal, but with the already very high level of production, he could have taken the extra step and been more aggressive with using the rear channels to better effect since he was already taking the time to make it 5.1. If the rears aren't in some way reinforcing what's happening in the front channels (the vast majority of the time this is exactly what's happening), it's doing scattered (too scattered IMO) echoes and reverbs with the even less occasional harmony. Most of what little movement there is from front to rear, and very little from left to right (and vice versa). This serves to "deaden" the surround effect IMO (though if he were to use the opposite stragetgy - all lateral movement and little vertical movement, the effect would essentially be stereo). We simply don't get much movement through the space, and though I can understand not wanting SS to be gimmicky (a very real hazard), he also seems to come short when using the technology he has to create something really cool.
It's certainly not a fudged effort - the SS mix is very good, and superior to the stereo mix in every respect - but it could be much more.
Fidelity:
Really fricking good. This album is superbly produced and contains a full, lush sound without killing the metal in it.
Misc:
I don't think that anyone other than those with a true DVD-A player can hear this disc as I don't think there's a DTS or DD mix. Though that doesn't hinder my own efforts, having a DTS encode would open up the mix to a much larger audience.
Overall
I give the SS version an 8. The music and production are top notch, but the lack of ingenuity in the mix brings it down, and the lack of a DTS encode means this release can only be heard by the few of us with dedicated players rather than the hundreds of millions worldwide with a regular-ol' DVD player. If surround , music is going to go anywhere at all, it won't be by making things available to the very few.