Katatonia
Katatonia is a Swedish heavy metal band formed in Stockholm in 1991 by Jonas Renkse and Anders Nyström. The band started as a studio-only project for the duo, as an outlet for the band's love of death metal. Increasing popularity led them to add more band members for live performances, though outside of the band's founders, the lineup was a constantly changing, revolving door of musicians throughout the 1990s, notably including Mikael Åkerfeldt of the band Opeth for a period. After two death/doom albums, Dance of December Souls (1993) and Brave Murder Day (1996), problems with Renkse's vocal cords coupled with new musical influences led the band away from the screamed vocals of death metal to a more traditional, melodic form of heavy metal music.
For the Welsh rock band, see Catatonia (band).
Katatonia
Stockholm, Sweden
- 1991–1994
- 1996–2018
- 2019–present
Jonas Renkse
Anders Nyström
Niklas Sandin
Daniel Moilanen
Roger Öjersson
Guillaume Le Huche
Fredrik Norrman
Mikael Oretoft
Mattias Norrman
Per Eriksson
Daniel Liljekvist
Mikael Åkerfeldt
The band released two more albums, Discouraged Ones (1998) and Tonight's Decision (1999), before settling into a stable quintet lineup for all of the 2000s. The band released four more albums with said lineup: Last Fair Deal Gone Down (2001), Viva Emptiness (2003), The Great Cold Distance (2006) and Night Is the New Day (2009), with the band slowly moving away from their metal sound while adding more progressive rock sounds to their work over time. While lineup changes started up again into the 2010s, Renkse and Nyström persisted, and the band continued on to release their ninth and tenth studio albums, Dead End Kings (2012) and The Fall of Hearts (2016). After touring in support of the album through 2017, the band entered a hiatus at the beginning of 2018. The band returned from their hiatus in February 2019, with their eleventh studio album, City Burials (2020), and twelfth studio album, Sky Void of Stars (2023).
History[edit]
Formation and early years (1991–1997)[edit]
The band was first formed in 1991 by Jonas Renkse and Anders Nyström as a two piece studio-based project.[1] Renkse would provide clean and screamed vocals and drums, while Nyström would provide all bass and guitars.[1] Renkse was the primary lyricist, while Nyström was the primary music composer.[2] The duo had been working together with music in some capacity since 1987, but became serious about making music in 1991, when they began work on their first release, the demo Jhva Elohim Meth... The Revival.[3] The release, along with the next few subsequent releases by the band, were of the death/doom metal sound, with the members being inspired and influenced by the rise of death metal becoming popular in Europe at the time.[2][3] The release was enough of a hit in the underground metal scene to garner the attention of a small music label, Vic Records, which re-released it as an EP in 1993, which helped gain more exposure for the duo.[1] The newfound popularity found them recruiting a bass guitarist, Guillaume Le Huche, so the trio could play live performances, and returning to the studio to recreate a debut full-length album. The resulting work, Dance of December Souls, was released in late 1993.[4] The album's bleak melancholy and despair of their sound continued to give them the classification of death-doom.[5][4]
After touring in support of the album, the trio recorded another EP, For Funerals to Come..., which was released in early 1995.[6] However, Le Huche left the band shortly after, and issues finding a replacement found the band break up for a year, while Renkse and Nystrom worked separately on their own projects.[1] Of note, Renkse started up a new band, October Tide, with guitarist Fredrik Norrman.[7] After working some with Norrman on the project, Renkse decided to revive Katatonia with Norrman as the new third member.[1]
After the year off, the band reformed in 1996 to record and release a second studio album, Brave Murder Day.[1] In addition to Fredrik Norrman contributing guitars to the album, the band also recruited Renkse's friend, Mikael Åkerfeldt of the band Opeth, to perform the screamed vocals, as Renkse became unable to do them himself anymore due to medical issues.[5][8] The release, alongside the EP Sounds of Decay released with the same lineup the next year, were considered their last in the genre of doom/death metal, with the band starting to focus more on clean vocals in subsequent releases.[9][10] To promote the album, the band recruited Mikael Oretoft to play bass and they embarked on their first European tour with progressive metal band In the Woods...[1][2]
Move away from death metal (1998–1999)[edit]
While Renkse experimented with clean, melodic vocals over metal instrumentation as early as the 1994 recording of the track "Scarlet Heavens" (later released in very limited capacity on Katatonia/Primordial in 1996), the band did not feel ready to pursue that sort of sound at the time.[2] However, after the band's 1997 releases, due to a desire to create more emotive and evolving music, the band decided to move in that direction.[2] The first of said releases was an EP entitled Saw You Drown, released in early 1997, which also contained the first wide release of "Scarlet Heavens".[11] Later in 1998, the band released their first full-album of this style, titled Discouraged Ones.[12]
After the release, the band signed a multi-album record deal with Peaceville, which would mark the first time the band would work with a bigger label, and stay with them for the long-term.[1] Additionally, Renkse wanted to focus further on dedicating himself to developing his clean vocals, leading him to no longer do any further drumming for the band.[2] The band kept active, recording and releasing their fourth album, Tonight's Decision, in 1999.[13] The sessions were difficult, with the writing alone taking Renkse and Nystrom over seven months to complete.[2] Once recording, they recruited Dan Swanö, who had helped assist the band in the past, as a sessions drummer.[1] While the album contained no screamed vocals, the band still retained Åkerfeldt still assisted with vocal production on the album, as they had with Discouraged Ones.[2]
After the release of Tonight's Decision, the band, tired of continually searching for session musicians, finally decided to put together a concrete, permanent lineup.[1] Fredrick Norrman recruited his brother, Mattias Norrman, as a bassist and Daniel Liljekvist joined the band as the drummer.[2]
Comments from other musicians[edit]
Some artists and bands have cited Katatonia as an influence, among which are Agalloch,[92] Nachtmystium,[93] Andy Schmidt of Disillusion,[94] Niklas Kvarforth of Shining,[95] Klimt 1918,[96] Marcela Bovio of Stream of Passion,[97] Daylight Dies,[98] Nucleus Torn,[99] Khors,[100] Marjana Semkina of iamthemorning, Wet,[101] Vladimir Agafonkin of Obiymy Doshchu,[102] Nahemah,[103] Forest Stream,[104] Forgotten Tomb,[105] Alex Vynogradoff of Kauan,[106] Bilocate,[107][108] Maxime Côté of Catuvolcus,[109] Nocturnal Depression,[110] Last Leaf Down,[111] Schizoid Lloyd,[112] and Pallbearer.[113]
In addition, other artists have been quoted expressing admiration for their work including Mark Jansen of Epica,[114] Luc Lemay of Gorguts,[115] Jim Matheos of Fates Warning,[116] Esa Holopainen of Amorphis,[117] and Bruce Soord of The Pineapple Thief.[118]