Day and then the shade (Katatonia) (LP 2930 - 2934)

Katatonia  Night Is The New Day (CD, Peaceville Records, 2009) ****  

Katatonia  Last Fair Day Gone Night (2CD + 2DVD set, Peaceville Records, 2014) **** 

Katatonia  Dead End Kings (CD, Peaceville Records, 2012) *****

Katatonia  Sanctitude (CD + DVD, KScope Records, 2015) ****  

Katatonia  The Fall of Hearts (CD, Peaceville Records, 2016) *****  

Genre: Swedish heavy metal, prog metal, prog rock

Places I remember: HMV, Fopp

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Departer (Night is the New Day)

Gear costume: Unfurl (Sanctitude)

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4

Active compensatory factors: As I write this, bright sun is streaming into my window and it is 23 degrees outside. Yes, the worst possible conditions for listening to the Swedish heavy metal band Katatonia and their album Night Is The New Day.

And yet...their potentially claustrophobic heavy metal (with emphasis on the heavy) doom music manages to successfully merge with the bright conditions! Much of the music is reflective with a nice metal crunch as well. 

Having said that, it's still better served cold and dark!

The band were seven albums into their career before I chanced my arm with their eighth - Night Is The New Day. By this stage the harsh death growls from their early albums had disappeared (great coz I'm not a fan) and Jonas Renske was using a more melodic singing voice (much better!) 

The first of the two live albums in my list is Last Fair Day Gone Night - a lavish package of two CDs and 2 DVDs of the material on the CDs. It all documents a gig from 2011 in London (but not released until after Dead End Kings). Although, one of the DVD's is a documentary.  

It sounds fantastic and looks great too. The band are in dynamic form performing material from their career to date ( up to 2011). They weren't road testing new material.

That makes Dead End Kings a pretty remarkable effort. The AllMusic critic sums things up well: 'With its various parts, ever-shifting dynamics, and blazing instrumental interludes, it sends the set off with a nearly majestic bang. Dead End Kings is uncompromising in its musical excellence, bleak vision, and dark, hunted beauty; it extends Katatonia's reach exponentially'.

Sanctitude is a second live album but this time it's an all acoustic affair, thanks to being live at London's Union Chapel. It's from a tour to support Dead End Kings, and is rather beautiful! An excellent companion to the studio versions. It comes with a DVD of the gig. Again - the packaging is beautiful!

The final album on my list is their 2016 album - The Fall Of Hearts. Lots of line-up changes had been happening since the previous album. That resulted in a more prog rock sound akin to latter day Opeth. Jonas sounds quite similar to Mikael Åkerfeldt, which is great from my pov. No duds, all killer - no filler!

Where do they all belong? A great companion to Tool, Opeth, and Anathema.