Katatonia

Discouraged Ones (Century Media)
by Paul Lee

Last year, I happened upon a momentous musical discovery, Katatonia‘s CD Brave Murder Day (which also included their EP For Funerals To Come). Their entrancing and haunting melodies with just a touch of death metal hooked me. Discouraged Ones is the Swedes’ successor and though the death-like vocals are gone, Katatonia have created another staggeringly great CD of darkly melodic metal. They’ve also dispensed with the ten minute songs and retreated to more conventional four minute tunes. To elucidate on their sound, Katatonia lean toward a doomy vibe, but tend toward more melody rather than heavy sound and rhythm. If you like Paradise Lost’s Draconian Times, you’ll more than likely dig Katatonia. Though each band has a completely distinctive sound, they share similar gloomy, dark origins. There’s a definite moody element to Katatonia’s sound, though they hardly use any keyboards. Guitarist Anders Nystrom’s intensely emotive guitar licks affect me the same way Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour’s do. Katatonia could be called melancholic metal, as it fits well alongside 4AD bands This Mortal Coil and Red House Painters. Hopefully, with the majesty of Discouraged Ones, metal, alternative, and even Goth fans may take notice.
(2323 W. El Segundo Blvd. Hawthorne, CA 90250)