KATATONIA
Nightmares As Extensions Of The Waking State
Napalm Records
With the departure of co-founding guitarist Anders "Blakkheim" Nyström, it could be argued that KATATONIA has, in essence, become frontman Jonas Renske's solo band. Actually, that could have probably been said about KATATONIA for awhile now, dating perhaps as far back as 2009 when longtime members began to leave - first the Normann brothers Fredrik (guitar) and Mattias (bass), then drummer Daniel Liljekvist - and Renske assumed greater and then sole responsibility for the songwriting, making the band's musical vision largely his own as it moved forward.
Indeed, 2020's City Burials was planned as a solo album for Renske but ended up being released under the KATATONIA banner after the band had undertaken a year-long hiatus. All that, combined with other matters and capped by the band's apparent reluctance to recognize its formidable death/doom legacy on the live front drove a wedge that eventually brought an end to Renske and Nystrom's 30-some year partnership.
"KATATONIA is doing a terrible job of keeping in touch with the past," Nyström emphasized in a social post after his official dismissal in March.
By then, he was essentially long gone anyway and KATATONIA was already looking ahead. Nightmares as Extensions of the Waking State, the band's 13th album, was in the bag and on its way out, having been but put together without Nyström's participation - fellow guitarist Roger Öjersson was gone as well. Nico Elgstrand (ex-ENTOMBED/ENTOMBED A.D.) and Sebastian Svalland (live guitarist with HYPOCRISY and PAIN), who had both filled in for Nyström or Öjersson on tour, recorded the guitars for the new album and have come onboard as band members.
Despite the upheaval, it should come as no surprise that Nightmares is rather in keeping with the band's recent efforts - not that that's the worst thing. Since 2009's Night Is The New Day, KATATONIA has all but perfected a melancholic progressive hard rock sound that is pretty much all its own. But what is surprising is that there are a few, well, surprises here, the most notable being the considerable muscle Elgstrand and Svalland are able to flex - albeit often in shortish bursts - and the dexterity that they display, though again in moderation.
The beefier tunes front-load Nightmares, perhaps to make a statement. Indeed "Thrice" opens the album with resounding power chords, which prove to be a momentary head fake as they quickly dissipate. But the crunching hooks return with abundance throughout the often-turbulent song that combines both the shapeshifting dynamics of OPETH and the punch of METALLICA's "Sad But True".
That Black Album oomph returns for the martial chug of "Wind of No Change" and buoyant swells of "The Liquid Eye", whereas on "Lilac", "Temporal" and "The Light Which I Bleed" the delivery is more about majesty than heft. The otherwise fairly serene "Warden", however, launches into several bracing gallops that find KATATONIA at its most "metal". Album closer "In the Event of" builds to a suitably rousing finale.
And, if anything, Nightmares indulges the band's progressive inclinations to a greater degree. This makes the bombastic or tangential contrasts all the more dramatic when played against the pensive melancholia and disarming periods of relative calm that can mask Renske's seemingly sinister intent - for example, the hushed croon of "praise hail Satan" from "Wind of No Change", the polar opposite of the emphatic malevolence with which Tom Araya delivers those the same words in SLAYER's "Altar of Sacrifice".
Renske is joined by an actual chorus for tradeoffs during the, umm, choruses on "Wind Of No Change" to give its electronic/elephant march back and forth a Gregorian feel, making it one of the album's several "outlier" tunes. The shuffled beats and sparse guitar jangle of the torch songy "Departure Trails" hint of pop-jazz, as if the band was channeling STEELY DAN or some such. Later, "Efter Solen" is a full-on ballad, with Renske singing softly in Swedish over a minimal accompaniment of electronic percussion and synths/electric piano.
And yet in spite of all of the above, the fears of those figuring KATATONIA might offer up "a slow one so you can get mellowed out", to quote the inimitable Lemmy, without Nyström and Öjersson are indeed realized to a degree. With its prolonged passive, almost meditative stretches - which I saw someone dismiss as "elevator music", ouch! - the back half of the album, especially,has a tendency to drag.
The only tracks that maintain relatively the same tempo and tone throughout are the aforementioned "Departure Trails" and "Efter Solen", the easiest going numbers of the lot. The heavier moments come and go with some regularity, as I mentioned earlier, but rarely maintain for long, so you won't find much in the way of momentum here. Thus, as good as the songs are, Nightmares lacks some of the resonance that made KATATONIA's last few albums really crackle - grim as their tidings might have been.
3.5 Out Of 5.0
