Katatonia - Night Is The New Day

For those not in the know, Katatonia are a Swedish band who started out in the early 90s playing their own take on the depressive Doom/Death genre. Over the course of their 8 albums and numerous EPs their style evolved away from death-metal to a more straightforward heavy rock/metal sound whilst always retaining their trademark depressive atmosphere.

I've been a fan of Katatonia for a long while, and although I like pretty much everything they've put out, my favourite material has always been their doom-death masterpiece Brave Murder Day.

Dark, heavy and melodic, the first thing that struck me was the great production. The sound is rich and crystal clear, the guitars are satisfyingly crunchy, Jonas' vocals sound more confident than ever and the keyboards/orchestration add a real depth to the sound.

Stylistically, Night is the New Day is a continuation of the sound developed on Viva Emptiness and The Great Cold Distance, though interestingly there are also some elements of their old selves in there – some doomy riffs here and there and some Last Fair Deal Gone Down era electronics too.

During the course of reviewing this album I've gone back and listened to Katatonia's back catalogue, and for me Night is the New Day is one of their strongest releases since BMD - praise indeed considering the high standard the band have always kept.

Night is the New Day is a fantastic release, dark, heavy, progressive and atmospheric – just what you want from Katatonia.

Chris Hall