Description

Katatonia's music has evolved over the years and some of you'll might be surprised to mention them on this website, but their music has that doomy atmospheric elements. The Mellow acoustic clean parts in their music are as haunted as you can imagine, forcing you'll to just concentrate in their music.

Katatonia is a Swedish metal band formed in Stockholm in 1991 by Jonas Renkse (formerly aka Lord Seth) and Anders Nyström (formerly aka Blakkheim). The early Katatonia albums are noted for the overall melancholy of their sound, often giving them the classification of doom metal. Katatonia's more recent albums have progressed to a wider sound, with modern overtones, dropped guitars, symphonic synths and arrangements, alternative sounds and generally heavier riffs.

Opeth's Mikael Åkerfeldt performed the growling vocals on Brave Murder Day and Sounds of Decay after regular Katatonia singer (and then drummer) Jonas Renkse became unable to scream properly. During this time, the band decided to change their sound to a more soft sound with clean vocals beginning with 1998's Discouraged Ones. This shift in instrumental tone and vocal style was accompanied by an appreciable decrease in the length of the band's songs, with latter period songs typically lasting around four minutes.

Katatonia has released two compilations. Brave Yester Days (the title being a play on their album Brave Murder Day) is a double-disc release including all cuts from EPs up to Saw You Drown, selected cuts from full-length albums Brave Murder Day and Dance of December Souls, and two tracks from a compilation. The Black Sessions is a limited release that documents later releases and includes a live DVD.

On May 31th 2009 Anders wrote on official Katatonia's webpage about starting to write the new album. Here is the text of his message:

"We’ve been very busy lately writing and completing the material for our 8th studio album and we’re proud to announce that Katatonia will enter the studio this summer, starting in a studio in the south of Sweden with drums courtesy of Daniel on June the 10th. We’ll then continue on the remainder of the sessions in a studio here in Stockholm further through july and wrap it up in august.

We’ll keep the info short for now as we’ll launch a studio diary to give you all the in-depth information and details on the album making incl album/song-titles, audio teasers, album artwork and also our tour plans along the recording process. We can already confirm that initially 13 tracks will be recorded and a selection of 11-12 songs will make it onto the album. We got a few big surprises to reveal and we’re confident this material is our most varied, diverse and possibly strongest shit all together on one and the same album."

The album will be called "Night Is the New Day" and will be released on October 19th in Europe and October 27th in America.

Origin and Status

Sweden (Avesta) - Active

Current Members

Jonas Renkse (Lord Seth) - Vocals, Programming (Drums 1987-1998, occasional guitars and keyboards) (Bloodbath (Swe), October Tide)

Anders "Blakkheim" Nyström - Guitars, Programming, Backing Vocals (Bass, Keyboards 1987-1993) (Bloodbath (Swe), Diabolical Masquerade, Bewitched (Swe))

Daniel Liljekvist - Drums, Percussion (1999-) (Komotio)

Past members

Guitars

Fredrik "North" Norrman - Guitars (1996-) (Uncanny (Swe), October Tide, Fulmination)

Vocals:

Mikael Åkerfeldt (1996-1997) (Opeth, Bloodbath (Swe), Steel (Swe), Sörskogen)

Bass:

Guillaume "Israphel Wing" Le Huche (1993-1995) (Eyekon, Mynjun)

Mikael Oretoft (1995-1998) (Eyekon, In Grey Mynjun)

Mattias "Kryptan" Norrman - Bass (1999-) (Dellamorte, Moondark, Interment (Swe))

Drums:

Dan Swanö (1999, also keyboards 1992-1993) (Another Life, Bloodbath (Swe), Brejn Dedd, Darkcide (Swe), Demiurg (Swe), Diabolical Masquerade, Edge of Sanity, Godsend (Nor), Incision (Swe), Infestdead, Karaboudjan, Maceration, Masticate, Nightingale (Swe), Odyssey (Swe), Overflash, Pan.Thy.Monium, Ribspreader, Route Nine, Star One, Steel (Swe), Total Terror, Unicorn (Swe), Sorskogen, Frameshift,Stygg Död, Obliterhate)

Discography

Albums

Live albums

EPs

Demos

Singles

Compilations

Contacts and Links

http://www.katatonia.com/

http://www.myspace.com/katatonia