October 22, 2006 | Posted by anders at 5:26 PM

A Great Cold Post

My history on last.fm will confirm that Katatonia are one of my absolute favorite bands ever. Shamefully, I've never been able to see them live though. Until Tonight.

They're coming through NYC on tour with Moonspell and Daylight Dies. I've been patiently waiting for this show for months now, ever since I saw it announced. Now, with them just a few hours away, I'm practically twitching. That might just be because of the pot of coffee I drank earlier though.

Katatonia have a fascinating history. They started out in the late 80's as a death metal band with a little bit of a melodic streak. Then their vocalist, Jonas Renkse, blew out his vocal cords (yes, years of brutal screaming can do that. It's one of the hazards of the genre). They got Mikael Ã…kerfeldt of Opeth to record the vocals for them on a couple albums but that wasn't really a viable long term solution. So they basically reinvented themselves and became a doom band with clean vocals and began introducing more and more melodic, alternative elements. Of course that pissed off a lot of more closed-minded fans, but it probably got them at least as many new ones. The really remarkable thing is how well they made the transition. Jonas turned out to have a great singing voice and their new focus on melody and atmosphere (still with a very dark and sad sort of vibe) made them hugely influential in their new genre.

With their new album, The Great Cold Distance, it's clear that they've hit their stride and are completely comfortable with their new sound. Check out the videos for My Twin and Deliberation to see for yourself.

I'm hoping that with this album and their US tour, they'll finally get some of the attention stateside that they've deserved for a long time.

The other bands on the tour should be good too. I've seen Moonspell before and they always entertain. I wasn't in to them much before, but their latest album, Memorial, is absolutely fantastic and probably the best they've released yet.

Daylight Dies I'm really curious to see live. I like their album a lot and the worst criticism I could really level against it is that it sounds a lot like Katatonia, which is hardly a bad thing in my book. Jesse Haff, their drummer, writes for the music blog Dark Dose which is a regular read for me so I know that his influences are right up my alley. I recommend reading his post on Daylight Dies for more info on them along with checking out their video for The Lies That Bind and buying Dismantling Devotion.

If I can figure out how to post from my fancy new phone, I'll try to post an update or two live from the show.

Comments

They don't like you for hotlinking, apparantly. Sad. :(

Posted by: j2 at October 22, 2006 7:31 PM

Which link isn't working for you? They all seem ok for me, here.

Anyway, no live moblogging for me yet. Not because of my technical ineptitude though; I just couldn't get any cellphone reception at the show. :(

The show was fantastic though. Daylight Dies were basically flawless live. Much tighter than I'd expect for a band with only one full-length album under their belt. Katatonia were pretty much everything I hoped for. The sound was a little screwed up on their first few songs but once it got fixed, they sounded great and had the crowd pretty much hypnotized. Moonspell were their usual theatrical selves and a lot of fun. It was a little jarring after the much mellower Katatonia, but thoroughly enjoyable.

Posted by: robotanders at October 23, 2006 1:25 AM

lol gotta love the finger! nice post though :P

Posted by: jeff at October 23, 2006 10:07 AM

hey, love the site, been reading for a while. i definitely have you linked back, feel free to stop by sometime. and i'm looking forward to some live updates from the show, that'd be sick.

-eric

Posted by: eric at October 23, 2006 2:10 PM
Post a comment









Human verification is easy! Type j in this box to prevent your comment from being rejected:


Remember personal info?

Human verification:

To help us fight the good fight against comment spam, you must enter your anti-spam key as indicated on the left. Don't forget to do this! Your comment may end up in the junk bin if you dont...