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Sweden's Katatonia attempted a fusion of
Paradise Lost's doom metal,
Cure's manic depression,
Sisters Of Mercy's hallucinated gothic and
and late-period Pink Floyd's baroque orchestrations.
Jonas Renkse was not a great vocalist and Anders Nystrom was not a virtuoso
guitarist, but the interplay between the singer's melodrama and the guitarist's
huge riffs coined a new dramatic form.
They debuted with the single Jhva Elohim Meth (1992) and
jumped to the forefront of the doom movement with the suicidal album
Dance of December Souls (Avantgarde, 1993), thanks to a sound heavy on the
keyboards and derivative in the melodies, and lengthy songs that took the
listener another world
(Gateways Of Bereavement,
Velvet Thorns, Tomb of Insomnia).
Brave Murder Day (Avantgarde, 1997) refined their hypnotic,
repetitive style and the crystal-clear production.
Murder, Rainroom, 12 and Brave rank among their classics.
The EP For Funerals to Come contains
For Funerals to Come,
Funeral Wedding and
Shades Of Emerald Fields, while
Black Erotica and Love Of The Swan appeared on a compilation.
The mini-albums
Sounds of Decay (Avantgarde, 1997), with
Nowhere,
At Last and
Inside The Fall,
and Saw You Drown (Avantgarde, 1998), with Scarlet Heavens,
signaled a continuing progress towards a more accessible style.
Brave Yester Days (Peaceville, 1999) is an excellent anthology of the
first period.
That quest peaked with Discouraged Ones (Avantgarde, 1998), a formally
impeccable album of shorter songs like Saw You Drown sung in clean vocals (not the usual growl).
Tonight's Decision (Peaceville, 1999) is Katatonia at their sonic peak,
just like Dark Side Of The Moon was Pink Floyd at their sonic peak
(certainly not their artistic peak).
For My Demons, In Death A Song, Had To,
Strained, A Darkness Coming, Nightmares By The Sea
are smaller versions of their old frescoes.
The only thing that remained of the original sound was the manic depression.
Last Fair Deal Gone Down (Peaceville, 2001) sounds a little formulaic,
although We Must Bury You experiments with electronica.
Chrome, Tonight's Music, Clean Today lack any element
of surprise.
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(Translation by/ Tradotto da Azzurra Pasqualone)
I Katatonia sono una band svedese che suona ciò che probabilmente è il più originale heavy-metal degli anni novanta. Sicuramente il più miserabile e oscuro. La loro fusione di doom metal in Paradise Lost, di depressione maniacale in Cure, di gotico allucinato e delle barocche orchestrazioni dell’ultimo periodo dei Pink Floyd in Sister Of Mercy fa di loro i Mozart della malinconia. Jonas Renkse non è un cantante eccezionale e Anders Nystr"m non è un chitarrista virtuoso, ma l’azione reciproca del melodramma del cantante e degli smisurati riff del chitarrista han coniato una nuova tipologia di canzone. Essi debuttarono con il singolo Jhva Elohim Meth (1992) e immediatamente balzarono in prima linea al movimento doom con l’album Dance of December Souls (Avantgarde, 1993), con un suono duro sulle tastiere e derivato nelle melodie, e lunghi brani che conducono l’ascoltatore verso un’altra dimensione.
Brave Murder Day (Avantgarde, 1997) ridefinisce il loro ipnotico, ripetitivo stile e la produzione al cristallo trasparente. Tra i loro classici risuonano For funeral to Come e Brave.
I mini-album Sound of Decay (Avantgarde, 1997) e Saw You Drown (Avantgarde, 1998) segnalarono un continuo progresso verso uno stile più accessibile.
Quella ricerca culminò con Discourages Ones (Avantgardes, 1998), un album formalmente impeccabile composto da pezzi più brevi come Saw You Drown.
Tonight’s Decision (Peaceville, 1999) rappresenta i Katatonia al culmine del suono, proprio come Dark Side Of The Moon vide i Pink Floyd sulla vetta (di certo non quella artistica). For My Dreams, In Death A Song, Had To, Strained, A Darkness Coming, Nightmares By The Sea sono le versioni minori dei loro vecchi affreschi.
Last Fair Dail Gone Down (Peaceville, 2001) suona un tantino formulato, nonostante gli esperimenti con l’elettronica in We Must Bury You. Chrome, Tonight’s Music, Clean Today mancano di ogni elemento si sorpresa.
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