Katatonia Discography Discussion: Sky Void of Stars (2023)

[TAC]

I just have the last two songs on Dance Of December Souls to finish up tonight.

[nick_z]

To add to the comments on Dance of December Souls: for me, it's a great debut album, different from basically any other of their full-lengths (even Brave Murder Day, I'd say), rough around the edges, but with a LOT to like. The lead guitar sound is very much influenced by what Greg Mackintosh had done on the Gothic album. I agree that there was a lot of mutual inspiration with early, pre My Arms your Hearse-Opeth...although Katatonia always sounded way darker to me (and generally more straightforward with their sound structures).

My favorite song here, overall, is probably In Silence Enshrined...it's all great, but the second half, starting around the 3-minute mark is absolutely fantastic (and Nystrom's guitar from around 3:50 on...so, so good).

The longer songs do suffer a bit from the youthful tendencies of wanting to include too much stuff...as a result, they sound a little disjointed. But there is enough goodness in there to make me appreciate them, regardless.

Overall, a very, very special example of that era's death/doom.

[twosuitsluke]

Also, if you want an all-encompassing example of Swano as a solo artist, try the debut album from Nightingale (The Breathing Shadow). He does everything himself there and it's an obscure mini-masterpiece.

Firing this up now Nick 

Just gave the first EP another spin and will do the debut and other EP again. I'm digging this early era of the band, and could see myself coming back every now and then 

[The Realm]

Really great thread and I will be following and commenting.

Dance of December Souls - I don't own this album and have rarely heard it. I did give it a listen though just now and there is some really good stuff to be found but it does sound like a different band. The very doom sound and vocals actually reminds be a lot of Behemoth. Nick mentioned the youthful tendencies and I do agree. It does feel like some young guys just going for it and trying to add as much 'cool stuff' as they can into each song.

One of the most fascinating things about Katatonia is their musical journey as a band. When you listen to this album, can you even imagine that one day the same band would write/perform a song like Old Heart Falls (for example).

[Lethean]

A few more pics from that era:

[ProfessorPeart]

As a huge Katatonia fan, this is the only record I don't own of theirs. I'll look into it and consider if I want it or not.

For the uninitiated, I will say the first several albums are pretty rough, at least for me. Mainly has to do with Jonas finding his voice.

I've been planning on going through their discography again and doing more of a thorough listen. I'm very familiar with the more 'modern' albums (I guess some of these are quite old at this point) dating back to Viva Emptiness. The ones before that one I have heard maybe 2-3 times each but it was such a long time ago and I think I listened to many of them in the span of a week so memory is quite hazy and my feelings for the band has grown with mostly the newer stuff.

Just from memory I don't remember the first few being rough, if anything Brave Murder Day is probably still one of their strongest albums and I remember the debut and Discouraged Ones being pretty great too.

I think the good professor is referring to Jonas' vocals, maybe especially on the early clean vocal albums.  And he has a good point.  It's not a bad idea to give a little warning for those who might only be familiar with more modern Katatonia that he sounds different.  His vocals improving are definitely a part of why I like the "newer" ones better than the early ones, but I really appreciate getting to hear that evolution.

Sorry, been away a bit but Lethean absolutely caught my meaning. Jonas did not come into his clean vocals until Viva Emptiness. He was still spotty on the album before, Last Fair Deal Gone Down. Thankfully, they performed that one live in its entirety several years ago and put it out.

So yeah, while the music can be and is very good on many of those early albums, Jonas' vocals can be grating as he tries to find his place. Brave Murder Day is kind of the exception since Akerfeldt handles vox on that one.

[TAC]

Dance of December Souls


Seven Dreaming Souls (Intro) - ....

Gateways of Bereavement - This starts off as a sludgefest. I like at about the 3:10 mark how the song develops and comes alive. Has kind an Iron Maiden midsection feel to it. I like the shift at 4:35. This would be a good song to get baked to.

In Silence Enshrined - I'm not sure what to make of these vocals. Cool Sabbath style shift at :59.  The instrumental part is pretty enjoyable.

Without God - This is like if when Rush went to make Signals, and they made a death metal album instead.

Elohim Meth - No surprise that Meth is in the title. It's nice though.

Velvet Thorns (of Drynwhyl) - Starts off quite slow and plodding up until about 3:45, where it kicks into gear. It's short lived. This really takes forever and goes nowhere.

Tomb of Insomnia - Most badass song title ever. This song has some variety, but the pacing is brutal. The transition at 9:07 is really nice though.

Dancing December -  This album needs more of what happens at 1:12 of this track.


At 13 minutes each, the last two tracks felt even longer. The tempo overall is was beneath my bottom limits for what I find enjoyable. There's a lot of great ideas but they never seem to get fully flushed out. The keyboards really add some much needed color. The vocals are really awkward, struggling to find their place.

[LithoJazzoSphere]

Absolutely, yes. 100% agree. And The Gathering is another example of certain "unlikely" influences (shoegaze, in this case) finding their way early on to create something unique (I always thought no other band was able to replicate Mandylion's sound...)

Yep, I'm always on the hunt for more music like it, since it's somewhat of a template for a lot of music I enjoy.  Some things here and there somewhere in the ballpark, but nothing quite like it.  We'll definitely be talking more about shoegaze next week/album too though. 

Agreed on his solo album-proper, Moontower. I, too, always saw it as a Rush/Marillion/Death Metal combo

I always thought Nightingale was more of the place where he put his Marillionesque ideas, and also Unicorn.  But admittedly I have very thin knowledge of Marillion, particularly compared to the other two. 

I left out some things because I was worried about making my post too long even.  But I don't anticipate all of them being that long; the origins part added a lot.

Yeah, I don't know how long commentary for later albums will be once we've laid the groundwork and people have gotten their initial opinions out.  I was worried about not having much to say about DoDS because I'm the least familiar with it, but it looks like I was able to reach deep in the bag and find some stuff. 

And somehow I completely missed this. Mentioning the rehearsal demos are some of the things I left out, but I had no idea they rerecorded them.  Did they announce this somewhere and I missed it?

I think it was all when they signed with Napalm Records and released the Melancholium box set in tribute to their original name.  Even the re-recordings are kind of raw, but much more accessible than the originals. 

https://napalmrecords.com/english/melancholium-tape-box.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRegrgiAF3U&t=337s

He does it also on the first October Tide album, and he did live harsh vocals for the next tour but I'll save that for your post.  Do you know if he ever sang and drummed at the same time live?  I couldn't find much but was under the impression that Anders did most of the singing for the very few shows they did prior to Brave Murder Day.

This is why we seem to work well together, I didn't know or had forgotten these details about their live shows at the time. 

I don't think he was ever an official member.  I'll have to see if I can find it but I remember an interview where Anders was pretty clear that he just did session drums for them

Oh, I know he wasn't, I'm just framing it as a "fifth Beatle" situation. 

[Lethean]

You guys may not have been expecting this, but I'm more pumped for this, after hearing the first 2 EPs/album, than I was after only being aware of some of their later albums.

I was not expecting that but this is totally awesome.

I know Katatonia were never black metal but they formed around that time when the genres weren't so clearly defined. They clearly mixed in all those extreme metal elements, and even wore corpse paint for a time.

Yes, and Anders was really into black metal and I think it seeped into what they were doing at the time.

I feel I'll appreciate where Katatonia go, knowing now where they've come from.

I'm honestly surprised by how much I liked these first records, and will certainly be spinning again before we move onto the next record.

+1 to the bold, and I will be spinning them again too throughout the week.

[Lethean]

Really great thread and I will be following and commenting.

Dance of December Souls - I don't own this album and have rarely heard it. I did give it a listen though just now and there is some really good stuff to be found but it does sound like a different band. The very doom sound and vocals actually reminds be a lot of Behemoth. Nick mentioned the youthful tendencies and I do agree. It does feel like some young guys just going for it and trying to add as much 'cool stuff' as they can into each song.

One of the most fascinating things about Katatonia is their musical journey as a band. When you listen to this album, can you even imagine that one day the same band would write/perform a song like Old Heart Falls (for example).

Sorrow will find you. 

And that's a great example I think.  in some ways the evolution does kind of make sense, and in others it's just like "wow."

[twosuitsluke]

Just finishing up a second listen through the debut and I've just gotta say I love this type of metal. I have been going back and listening to a lot of metal, especially around the 88-92 era, that covers the more extreme end of the spectrum, so this lines up perfectly with that.

Two things, one I wouldn't be surprised to find I like this debut more than quite a lot of their later albums. It has left more of an impression than the other albums I mentioned earlier in the thread, that I'd heard. I'm aware that could be mainly down to me giving this a more focused listen for the purpose of this thread, but there you have it.

Two, this band is so Opeth adjacent that it baffles me that I'm not more familiar with their output. I've nearly been listening to Opeth for 20 years, and even though I have actually been aware of Katatonia for most of that time, I just never listened, weird. While I'm talking Opeth, I may end up liking this more than Orchid (which I can draw parallels to). Opeth are one of my all time favourites, and I find Orchid one of their weakest.

I won't, but I really want to listen to the next few albums.

[nick_z]

Two, this band is so Opeth adjacent that it baffles me that I'm not more familiar with their output. I've nearly been listening to Opeth for 20 years, and even though I have actually been aware of Katatonia for most of that time, I just never listened, weird. While I'm talking Opeth, I may end up liking this more than Orchid (which I can draw parallels to). Opeth are one of my all time favourites, and I find Orchid one of their weakest.

Well, to be fair, despite the connection through early collaborations and friendship, musically speaking the only Opeth-adjacent output is their very early stuff (and even that, I think, is gloomier and more straightforward than what Opeth was doing on Orchid or even Morningrise). And both bands changed their sound pretty soon after that.

...well, actually, the song Idle Blood from the Night is the New Day album (many, many years later) is very Opeth-sounding, but we are talking mellow Opeth here, so a different beast altogether...

I won't, but I really want to listen to the next few albums.

Why not? 

[twosuitsluke]

Two, this band is so Opeth adjacent that it baffles me that I'm not more familiar with their output. I've nearly been listening to Opeth for 20 years, and even though I have actually been aware of Katatonia for most of that time, I just never listened, weird. While I'm talking Opeth, I may end up liking this more than Orchid (which I can draw parallels to). Opeth are one of my all time favourites, and I find Orchid one of their weakest.

Well, to be fair, despite the connection through early collaborations and friendship, musically speaking the only Opeth-adjacent output is their very early stuff (and even that, I think, is gloomier and more straightforward than what Opeth was doing on Orchid or even Morningrise). And both bands changed their sound pretty soon after that.

...well, actually, the song Idle Blood from the Night is the New Day album (many, many years later) is very Opeth-sounding, but we are talking mellow Opeth here, so a different beast altogether...

I won't, but I really want to listen to the next few albums.

Why not? 

I mean, I want to listen to them right now, but I won't, I'll wait and listen along with everyone else in this thread.

[LithoJazzoSphere]

Well, to be fair, despite the connection through early collaborations and friendship, musically speaking the only Opeth-adjacent output is their very early stuff (and even that, I think, is gloomier and more straightforward than what Opeth was doing on Orchid or even Morningrise). And both bands changed their sound pretty soon after that.

...well, actually, the song Idle Blood from the Night is the New Day album (many, many years later) is very Opeth-sounding, but we are talking mellow Opeth here, so a different beast altogether...

Well, I would say in any given moment on a number of songs if you are familiar with the catalogue of one band you are going to find some similarities in moments of the discography of the other.  But pretty much from the period that My Arms Your Hearse and Discouraged Ones were their newest albums their paths diverged.  They kind of veered back together a bit as Katatonia grew proggier later in their career and Opeth went mellower, but their core sounds are distinctly different. 

[nick_z]

Why not? 

I mean, I want to listen to them right now, but I won't, I'll wait and listen along with everyone else in this thread.

Aaah, yes, got it...sorry 

[billboy73]

I have enjoyed reading the history and notes from this early era, and seeing some of those early pics as well.  Looking forward to going through their discography with y'all. I have been a fan for several years.  I remember a friend having Brave Murder day in the late 90's, because Mikael from Opeth did the vocals.  I enjoyed listening to that album but never bought any of their stuff.  Several years ago, they came across my radar again.  I knew they had changed, but Viva Emptiness was the next thing I heard and liked it.  From there I pretty quickly bought all there albums and haven't looked back. 

I really like Dance of December Souls, but it's not something I reach for all that often.  Still, it is a classic of the death/doom genre, and is highly regarded because of how groundbreaking it is.  The album has a particular atmosphere, like a lot of Scandinavian metal albums from the early 90's, and that also gives it that bit of black metal tinge.  I hear a lot of that in Orchid too, as early Opeth has been mentioned in this thread.  That atmosphere is what I enjoy about this album.  The production and the vocals add to that too.  It always blows me away hearing how young some of these bands were when they recorded their first albums. 

[Evermind]

Somehow I'm not surprised at all, only perhaps surprised it took you (and LithoJazzoSphere) this long to do it

Fire is hot
Water is wet
Lethean creates Katatonia Discography Thread

[Lethean]

Somehow I'm not surprised at all, only perhaps surprised it took you (and LithoJazzoSphere) this long to do it

Fire is hot
Water is wet
Lethean creates Katatonia Discography Thread

  

I've thought about it but at first thought I was too new then wasn't sure if enough people would be interested (or willing to humor me).  Then I took a break from being online much for a while.  I think I just needed some encouragement and am glad Litho suggested it.

[twosuitsluke]

Second listen to For Funerals to Come and I think it's the weakest out of the three posted so far, that is all.

[TAC]

Funeral Wedding Easily the best song I've heard so far. Lots of changes and surprisingly uptempo in spots. I found the drumming a bit sloppy.

Shades Of Emerald Fields THis song covers a lot of damn ground in 5 minutes. I'm digging this too.

For Funerals To Come What can I say about this?? It's a nice little bit.

Epistel Er... wut?

Black Erotica The first 2:30 I thought I was getting a Cliff Era Metallica instrumental. The drums are much better here. The double kick is much more controlled. Also, the vocals are better, at least much better blended with the music. The vocals seem more direct and pointed as opposed to sounding like a parody on the first EP. I like this. The production, if even a bit too lite, doesn't feel so heavy and gloomy. It didn't really feel like 9 minutes.

Love Of The Swan I'd probably rank this fourth out of the four actual songs here. I liked the transition at 3:00. The drumming falls off again here.


Scarlet Heavens Total Gothic vibe which I have a big secret spot for. Has an 80's feel to it. The production on the drums hurts it a bit. The double bass still feels a little off. A tad long, but I totally like this song.

[Lethean]

Is that all your first impressions TAC?

I like Scarlet Heavens a lot musically but it's definitely not one of my favorite Jonas vocal performances.

I'm glad you've found some things to enjoy from the early days.

[TAC]

Is that all your first impressions TAC?

Yes, those are my first listen impressions. Was I too brief? 

[Lethean]

Is that all your first impressions TAC?

Yes, those are my first listen impressions. Was I too brief? 

Not at all.  I just wasn't sure if you'd listened to it once or a few times.

[TAC]

Just once. But I'll go back to a few of these tunes again before we get too far ahead. There were a handful that earned second listens.

Generally I like the style of these albums. Love the multiple transitions and the vocals on For Funerals To Come were so much better.
A lot of it was too slow in tempo and I thought the drums weren't great. But you could tell they were a young band that were still finding their way, composition and production-wise. But also a young band with promise..

[twosuitsluke]

Hey guys, what's the schedule for this? Not rushing you in anyway, just wondering. Are we doing an album a week?

[LithoJazzoSphere]

Probably the next album roughly every weekend. 

[billboy73]

Scarlet Heavens is such an interesting track in their catalog.  I really dig it. I love the guitar on this one.  I first heard it when I bought Discouraged Ones, as it's a bonus track on the reissue.  I was like what is this, but I grew to enjoy it.  Jonas' vocals are definitely interesting on this one.  I did not know it was recorded in 1994 until reading through this thread, which makes it even more interesting to me.  I thought it was later since I knew it as a bonus track on Discouraged Ones.  Really neat Gothic vibe on this one.

[Lethean]

I have it as a bonus track as well.  When I went back to get the entire Rush catalog, it was easy; just buy the albums.  I know there are a couple tracks from before the first album but otherwise it was simple.  Katatonia has EPs and b-sides and multiple bonus tracks on different versions.  I ended up making a spreadsheet to track it all down.

[LithoJazzoSphere]

That prompts the story of how I got into Katatonia in the first place.  I really don't remember how I heard about them, but I started accumulating some tracks from file sharing programs at the time, probably Kazaa or WinMX.  That included "Murder" and "Day" from Brave Murder Day, "For My Demons" and "Right Into the Bliss" from Tonight's Decision, and "Tonight's Music", "Clean Today", and "Passing Bird" from Last Fair Deal Gone Down.  I would listen to that set (almost exclusively the clean vocal ones from the latter two albums at first) every few weeks, and found it really intriguing.  I bought the CD of Viva Emptiness the year after sometime after it came out, and listened to it a truckload.  Then a year after that, I still fondly remember going into Tower Records and splurging to get the recently released Brave Yester Years, which was a compilation of tracks and B-sides from the early years, and the SE versions of LFDGD, TD, and maybe one or two of the first three, can't remember which.  That was my first exposure to the very earliest material, and I didn't know what to make of it at the time.  I was still in the period of extreme metal being a growing portion of my taste, but I didn't yet enjoy the harsh vocal style, and the sloppiness of the music and production style of that era was a bit much for me at that point. 

[twosuitsluke]

 

[LithoJazzoSphere]

I have a draft of it, I just need to do some more listening and research and flesh things out a bit more.  Probably post it sometime tomorrow. 

[Lethean]

That prompts the story of how I got into Katatonia in the first place.  I really don't remember how I heard about them, but I started accumulating some tracks from file sharing programs at the time, probably Kazaa or WinMX.  That included "Murder" and "Day" from Brave Murder Day, "For My Demons" and "Right Into the Bliss" from Tonight's Decision, and "Tonight's Music", "Clean Today", and "Passing Bird" from Last Fair Deal Gone Down.  I would listen to that set (almost exclusively the clean vocal ones from the latter two albums at first) every few weeks, and found it really intriguing.  I bought the CD of Viva Emptiness the year after sometime after it came out, and listened to it a truckload.  Then a year after that, I still fondly remember going into Tower Records and splurging to get the recently released Brave Yester Years, which was a compilation of tracks and B-sides from the early years, and the SE versions of LFDGD, TD, and maybe one or two of the first three, can't remember which.  That was my first exposure to the very earliest material, and I didn't know what to make of it at the time.  I was still in the period of extreme metal being a growing portion of my taste, but I didn't yet enjoy the harsh vocal style, and the sloppiness of the music and production style of that era was a bit much for me at that point.

I likely wouldn't have given any of those tracks the time of day if they were the first ones I'd heard... except maybe for Tonight's Music.  But maybe not even that depending on when; if it was in the early 2000s when I was really into high soaring vocals (and still am, but then it was more of a requirement with my metal).  I sometimes wish I'd gotten into them sooner but I think I found them when the time was right for me.

[Lethean]

I have a draft of it, I just need to do some more listening and research and flesh things out a bit more.  Probably post it sometime tomorrow.

I won't be around that much in the next few days but I will at the very least update the thread title tomorrow night if you've posted.  And as I get time I'll add my thoughts on the album and reply to everyone.

[LithoJazzoSphere]

Brave Murder Day

Recorded July 1996 in Dan Swano's Unisound/Gorysound Studio.  Released August/November 1996 on Italian label Avantgarde Music. 

Tracklist:

1. Brave - 10:16
2. Murder - 4:54
3. Day - 4:28
4. Rainroom - 6:31
5. 12 - 8:18
6. Endtime - 6:45

Total runtime:  41:12

Lineup:

Jonas Renkse - clean vocals, drums, lyrics
Anders Nystrom - guitars, bass
Fredrik Norrman - guitars
Mikael Akerfeldt (Opeth) - guest harsh vocals

Dan Swano - engineering/mixing

*This is the first time they featured a bird on the cover, a motif that would become their signature "mascot", you could say

*It is still one of the most unique albums in metal history.  Both Jonas and Anders discuss how they were intentionally trying to bring in more non-metal influences into their sound, which was still less common at the time.  Black metal crossed over with shoegaze and post-rock a lot starting in the 00s, but death metal and shoegaze have very rarely been merged together, yet Katatonia does it here.  In particular they were listening to a lot of Slowdive (Jonas can even be seen wearing one of their shirts in the liner notes for the next album), and were incorporating other influences like Kent, Chris Isaac, and the Red House Painters.

*There's a more minimalistic philosophy in terms of instrumental parts compared to previous albums, less of a toss everything at the canvas and see what sticks approach and more focus on development of particular riffs and melodies, which is ironic given that Akerfeldt and Opeth were still in "kitchen sink mode" at the time.  There's also a transition away from being as doomy, the songs are generally a bit more midtempo.  Interestingly, for Katatonia having the most extreme metal influences on DoDS, and BMD starting to broaden their sound palette with more non-metal influences, BMW has more dissonant and angular melodies than DoDS does. 

*This album continues to evoke Opeth a fair amount, particularly with some of the rapid shifts back and forth between heavy riffs with growls (even more obviously by having Akerfeldt himself) and quieter passages, substituting Opeth's acoustics for Anders' drenched clean tones

*"12" is a rerecording of "Black Erotica" from the W.A.R. compilation.  Taking out the clean intro was a mistake in my opinion, but I do like the thicker sound of the rest of it better. 

*When recording BMD they actually had very little new material prepared to record, so after setting up their gear, Dan went home, and the band went to work furiously writing away to have something to record the next day.

*Dan was so unimpressed with the ideas they worked with in the recording of the album that he didn't even bother mastering it.  Normally I think Dan has pretty stellar taste, but I suppose he can't be right all the time. 

*This was the first step in a long process of lowering their guitar tunings, here just to Eb standard.  The guitar tones still sound fantastic to me, they used the iconic Boss HM-2 pedal that Entombed, Dismember and others had employed to create the signature Swedish buzzsaw guitar tone, though Katatonia's version was a bit more subtle.  Anders is expanding his palette of tones here, with the opening screech of feedback on "Brave" and elsewhere, and employs some tapping later in the song (as a non-virtuoso example of how a technique can alter the feel of a song). This is more of a studio creation than directly Anders per se, but I love the stereo panning effect on the guitar lead in "Murder".  He has some rather unique harmonies, especially on "12". 

*The drumming is simplified here, and the drum tones haven't aged that well to me, they sound thin, clicky, and boxy.  Jonas at the time was enamored with the drum sound Sunlight Studio had on some recordings with a digital kit, so he used Dan's equivalent set to those.  "Day" sounds like either a drum machine or running that kit through some processing. 

*I don't care as much for Nystrom's bass playing here as Guillaume's on the debut, it's lower in the mix, and not as adventurous

*Mikael really gives this album a boost, his harsh vocals just have so much more power and texture than Jonas' ever did

*"Day" I believe is Jonas first attempt at clean vocals.  One of the prominent characteristics of shoegaze is that clean vocals are often a bit distant in the mix, obscured by effects and not always that intelligible, and this certainly rubs off here. 

*Katatonia rarely utilizes samples, but "Endtime" has one from Stanley Kubrick's 1980 The Shining

*"At Last" ends with a fadeout, the first one that they had done that I can recall.  "Endtime" cuts out very suddenly at the end, a technique to introduce discomfort that they'll use to even greater effect later on. 

*Going into this discography exploration I would in absolute terms have given BMD a significantly higher score than DoDS.  The primary reason really is Akerfeldt's vocals, since he's arguably my favorite harsh vocalist.  Sitting down with both of them again numerous times and thinking more deeply about it, it's far closer now.  One thing that I never really thought about while listening over all these years, but now seems glaringly obvious, is how much I miss the keyboards from DoDS.  They really added a lot, and as expansive as Anders' lines are on BMD, it's not the same effect as those crystalline synths on DoDS. 

*The BMD tour was the first one to travel outside of Sweden, where they took In The Woods and Voice of Destruction with them.  Jonas was a bit more comfortable with vocals at this point and wanted to perform them instead of drums.  They brought in Kennet Englund to play drums, who had been a bandmate of Fredrik Norrman's in Uncanny.  They also procured Mikael Oretoft from Eyekon to play bass live, and he would be part of the band for the next EP.  The record label had not been released the album yet for the first half of the tour, so none of the fans knew the songs yet.  Their tour bus did not have heat, and this eventually took a toll on Jonas' voice, making him too sick to even speak, necessitating Anders would have to perform vocals instead. 

Sounds of Decay EP

Recorded February of 1997 in Sunlight Studio.  Released December 1997 on Avantgarde Music. 

Tracklist:

1. Nowhere - 6:05
2. At Last - 6:13
3. Inside the Fall - 6:19
(4. Untrue - 2:31 - included on some reissues, and also on the B-side compilation album Brave Yester Years from '04)

Lineup:

Jonas Renkse - drums, lyrics
Anders Nystrom - guitars, bass, lyrics
Mikael Akerfeldt (Opeth) - guest harsh vocals

Tomas Skogsberg - engineering/mixing

*The cover is a still from the film Begotten

*It's also the last time they would use their original borderline illegible logo with the pentagram in it

*For the first time, they worked with Tom Skogsberg, one of the most legendary figures in metal, helming the iconic Sunlight Studio, where seminal albums were recorded from Dismember, Entombed, Grave, At The Gates, Amorphis, and hundreds of others.  This also means that this album involves Jonas Renkse, Mikael Akerfeldt, Dan Swano, and Tomas Skogsberg working together, it's like the Avengers of Swedish metal.  If I had a time machine, being in the same room with the four of them would definitely be on my list of places to be. 

*This would be the final recording with a prominent harsh vocal style

*They partied excessively hard the night before the recording session for this EP, and as a result had to go back later and rerecord it once they heard how poorly it initially came out

*This EP starts to hint increasingly at the alternative rock influences that were seeping into their sound

*I'm not sure I've consciously thought about it this way until doing this runthrough, but Anders Nystrom is probably close to my favorite metal guitarist when it comes to cleanish tones.  There are better riffers and soloists, but not many have his ear for interesting clean parts, arpeggios, and incorporation of effects pedals. 

*They were very consciously inspired again by Paradise Lost's Gothic on this album by the guitar melody stylings of Gregor Mackintosh

*The drum sound is noticeably improved here, much fuller than BMD

*They did one show with Akerfeldt fronting the band

Saw You Drown EP

Recorded July-August 1997.  Released January 1998 on Avantgarde Music. 

Tracklist:

1. Saw You Drown - 5:01
2. Nerve - 4:30
3. Quiet World - 4:37
4. Scarlet Heavens - 10:24

Lineup:

Jonas Renkse - vocals, drums, bass, songwriting, lyrics
Anders Nystrom - guitars, keyboards, bass, songwriting, lyrics
Fredrik Norrman - guitars
Mikael Oretoft - bass
Guillaume Le Huche - bass

Tomas Skogsberg - engineering/mixing
Fred Etsby (also the drummer of venerated bands Dismember and Carnage) - engineering
Dan Swano - production/engineering/mixing

*This one includes "Scarlet Heavens", which had already been on the split with Primordial, and three new songs that would portend the direction they would head on the next album.

*It's the first appearance of their classic logo that they would run with for for a number of albums

*"Nerve" is what I consider the start of a sound that they would settle into for awhile that for a long time was labeled "depressive rock".  It has a bass-heavy power chord riff style mixed with leads that at times sounds like a far darker version of Weezer and other 90s alt rock bands. 

*"Saw You Drown" took awhile to grow on me, but has become one of their more emotional resonant songs for me.  Jonas' flawed but earnest delivery at this stage lends an authentic feel that is quite unique to this time period.  They were huge fans of The Cure, especially the Disintegration and Pornography albums, and you can really hear the influence of Robert Smith's vocals on Jonas here. 

"Quiet World" was one of my favorite Katatonia songs fairly early on.  The main riff from it kind of sounds like a doom metal-filtered version of the "1979" Smashing Pumpkins riff with the open strings, wide voicings, and subtle string bends.  The Mellotron and synths from Anders here would augur future developments in their sound. 

*I must admit also that it took a number of years of being a fan of theirs before I realized that Jonas' last name is "Renkse" and not "Renske"

*Overall favorite songs from this era - "Quiet World", "12", "Endtime", "Saw You Drown", "At Last"

[twosuitsluke]

That's this evenings listening sorted.

So on Spotify the above EPs are not there as EPs, but as bonus tracks on Brave Murder Day and Discouraged Ones.

Furthermore, the song on Untrue isn't on either, and the tracklisting for Sounds of Decay on the end of Discouraged Ones, is in a different order and has an instrumental thrown in.

Are these the same recorded versions as the actual EPs? Just want to make sure I'm listening to the correct versions of this album, and following 2 EPs.

Looking forward to it. You had me at Deathgaze.