Important message....

[requiem]

This forum is similar to the Anathema one, in that many people apparently read the posts but don't actually post themselves.

Why is this I wonder.

Just a cursory glance at the list of threads reveals that most people prefer to 'watch' as it were.

I think this forum would be a really great place if more people replied- even if they don't think they have anything amazingly worthwhile to say.

So start with this one and say something goddamit!!

p.s I love Katatonia.

 

[Carbonized]

i was gonna be the first smart ass and write just "something" but i thought better of it and yes i love Katatonia, as if you coulddn't tell by me putting all this work in to a simple CD cover for a bootleg( i REALLY wish there was an official live album) But yea i'd say Katatonia are my ultimate favorite band ever, have been for years and i hope it stays that way!

 

[_Transparent_]

yeah they're my favourite band. i was here from the beginning of the forum, i think or near the beginning maybe. and well i found that i was the only one posting on here, there would be like 6-7 threads at the top started by me, no one else done anything, and replies came a week or so later, its got better since then though, and we need more posting...

 

[my dying groom]

Why is this I wonder.

I am the embodiment of laziness, that's all

and well i found that i was the only one posting on here, there would be like 6-7 threads at the top started by me, no one else done anything, and replies came a week or so later

Yeah, but I admired your perseverance

 

[lumen]

My meaningless contribution:

I joined Ultimate Metal just so I could post something on the Katatonia forum.

 

[elric]

alright, then... coming out of the shadows.... hello! i've been reading for a good long time but never really had much to contribute... but hell, as long as you won't laugh at me (too much), i'll come out and play to answer your question, btw, i think the reason that i havent posted much before is basically feeling like a newbie, and since i never really posted, never getting over that. um so yeah... big kata fan... first heard em on the identity 4 compilation, then promptly went out and tried to buy all the cds. failed miserably (ah, the joy of american record stores). finally found em tho, and now i definitely count katatonia as one of my absolute favorite bands. other favorites: devin townsend, life of agony, tiamat, etc... so, to prompt a little discussion: do you folks think that listening to depressing music all day makes you more depressed, is a sign of depression, actually helps with depression, just means you like feeling all gothic-y, or what?
so, again... hello!!

 

[Melancholia]

hello i think i'm mostly luyrking and reading here than posting..and the same goes for the Anathema forum...(and lately for the opeth forum)...i don't know exactly why....maybe because most of the time i feel i have nothing important or interesting to say (The future of speech?) and in that case i prefer to keep my mouth shut than spamming (like i do in the DT forum ,which is my favourite forum noawadays,some short of net family for me ) ...Sometimes non-posting is due to my laziness (last night and tonight are good examples)

as for Elric's question (thought-provoking one and btw don't be that shy!!!!! here since october and only two posts???? we won't eat you )
I've actually thought about for years.... i still haven't formed a clear conclusion,just vague thoughts......
What follows are my thoughts and i won't try to generalize...i'll speak only of the way i see it...
When I was constantly depressed (and that was a long period) music was somekind of solace for me...helped me in some way to go on..and even though i cried and cried with a great deal of songs,i can't say it was sth that made me feel more depressive...It was sth that accompanied my depression.... and even helped get my sorrow out of my body (with the shape of tears ) in many cases....
Listening to depressive music is not necessarily a sign of depression...at least not in my case....The last two months after a long period of emptiness I'm having the best days of my life...but still i listen to depressive music...without it really affecting me...
and i especially realised it last night..i started getting depressed and music had started to affect me in a negative way...searched through my very few mp3s trying to find sth "happy" .....to no avail....and freaked somehow...i mean i thought "look what i listen when i feel high and happy!!! dark stuff and yest i feel high" .....
Today i woke up and felt totally awful....and FELT the need to listen to sth depressive...it made me even worse.... (well Diorama ruins even my good days,imagine what happened this gloomy orning)...
ucchhh i guess no one understands what i am trying to say...i shouldn't post when sad....

 

[elric]

no, that makes sense... (i think... if i'm reading you right). i think that it has different effects depending on your mood. like, for example, when i'm in a depressed mood, listening to something really dark does tend to cheer me up, make me feel better... i think its largely the feeling of sympathy from the music. its just a feeling of 'someone understands, someone else feels like this and is able to express it better than i can.' so yeah, i definitely think that listening to depressing music can help with depression at times. on the other hand, though, i've definitely experienced it where i'll be in a great mood, and listen to certain more depressing types of music will just make me really upset, without any real reason. the problem with that is, as you said, most things i listen to regularly and really enjoy aren't exactly the most upbeat happy songs, and so... i think its sort of a cycle. feel depressed, listen to depressing music... it helps, but you get so used to the music that when you arent depressed any longer, you keep listening, and it kinda drags you back in. so yeah, i definitely understand where you're coming from, melancholia... music can have quite an effect on your mood, and the same songs can be positive or negative, depending on your frame of mind. i definitely agree that the catharsis you can get from dark music can be healing, but i also do think that certain music can ruin an otherwise good mood.

oh, and as for the only two posts since october... i think i joined back then to post one question (something about finding katatonia posters, i think... which i have since done, and now have a nice big tonight's decision poster hanging over my desk ), and then kind of kept reading along but never really posted again, for some reason. still, i kinda like this y'all may have trouble getting rid of me now

 

[requiem]

Good to see some posts!

Personally, I'm not so sure about the depression question. I can say that listening to sad music cheers me up in that I'm enjoying the music and the lyrics, but I wouldn't say that the depressive stuff makes me feel better, if you know what I mean?

In fact, if I'm particularly sad I'll normally avoid Katatonia and Anathema and go and watch the Simpsons!

But I love dwelling in the sadness of the music. Being sad while listening to Katatonia actually makes me happy underneath. Confusing, I know...

 

[Carbonized]

Sadness, Depression... Music is therapy for me, the more miserable sounding and desolate it sounds the better. As someone else said, it's kind of like a helping hand because you can identify with it as such i suppose. I mean when i'm like that the last thing i want to hear is some band trying to blow sunshine up my ass

 

[MindMorgue]

No I refuse to say anything whatsoever...........oh.....bugger.......

 

[Kveldssanger]

Well, lets take things one at a time. On the "reading-but-not-posting", I'll give three reasons for most of the times doing the same thing. 1) Most of the times I browse around the forum I feel a bit lazy and that leads to two things. Either I'm not in the mood for replying at all or I can't bring myself to write the extensive reply that i believe suits to a topic. So I keep my mouth shut and watch . 2) I'm not the biggest Katatonia fan ever (although I like them) so most of the times I don't have anything worthwhile to contribute to the discussion, very often due to my lack of knowledge on a lot of the topics discussed here. 3) I always believed that if you don't have anything important to say, don't say anything. Meaningless replies offer nothing to the discussion (unless of course it's "light" or humoristic thread where a serious answer would be out of place. Those are my reasons for looking but not touching.

As for the "depressive music-depressive feelings" topic, I must say I like a lot bands that play depressive or moody or I don't know what else music. I don't listen to them only when I'm depressed (after all I'm rarely depressed, sad or unhappy yes, but not depressed), but when I'm feeling "down" this music very often works as a cathartic procedure for me. Music can move me, make me experience strong emotion, but the music itslef have never made me feel depressed. Music is one of the most important ways to make me think or feel more intensely, so I believe that music always works in a positive way for me... What can I say I'm happy person.

I hope these responses finally satisfied requiem.

PS. I know I'm lazy, but I can do nothing about it
PS 2. Now look what have you done with this thread....YOU exhausted me

 

[Nico16]

I don't know what to say...execpt hmmmm...that I'm sometimes afraid of Katatonia's lyrics...not because they're bad or so, but because sometimes I think the whole thing was just written for ME. The best example are the lyrics for "I am Nothing"...in this song EVERY SENTENCE "fits", if you get what I mean.

And I like October Tide too. Jonas once (around the time Discouraged Ones was released) said that they quit writing October Tide stuff because it was too similar to the Katatonia stuff they were writing at the time. I guess that was a logical decision back then...but now, if you listen to LFDGD, they have changed alot...so in my opinion they should consider reviving October Tide, because, as you know, a lot of fans (like me) absolutely love the Brave Murder Day and Sounds of Decay period...

About the depressing music and stuff: I fully agree with elric & Mela: sad music is good, if you are already sad...you can even enjoy it, if you're in a good mood, but only to a certain degree. I don't know if you're familar with some of the really depressive finnish doom-bands like Skepticism, Unholy and co., but I can't listen to one of those bands when the weather is sunny and everything seems to be alright - but I could listen to Last Fair Deal Gone Down (but only to some songs and not all the time)
When I began listening to metal, I was a real Doom-head; My Dying Bride and Anathema were my favourite bands and I almost only listened to the slow stuff, but that has changed - nowadays I find myself thinking "this is too slow!" when I listen to some of those bands. When I'm happy and it's sunny I prefer listening to Bal-Sagoth or Childern of Bodom (the happier the music gets, the more stupid seems to be the band's image and their lyrics )


PS: My Dying Bride is *still* (and will always be) my favourite band. I can't remember when I last listened to them though

 

[falling bird]

I can't remember the last time i put on some kind of happy song.
At the moment sad music speaks to me more than ever before.
Every song brings out different feelings in me. There are songs that just leave me with a sad feeling, than there are ones that really start to depress me making me feel really afraid, and there are songs that just leave an empty feeling in me but i never put them out,don't know why,i just need them,need the feeling,this pure feeling showing me where i stand at the moment, it has something to do with being honest to myself i think.
I feel that i have become a lot more darker than i was before and writing this makes me a bit sad but since music is nearly everything i got i have to live these feelings since they are a part of me and with other pieces make me what i am.

Requiem i think you are right, this forum needs more replies and that goes for me too since i too mostly just read through all of the threads and never often reply. Also i think there should be more interesting threads,that is of course up to us. Someone posted a thread named "clean today" here a few days ago talking about the song and its lyrics trying to find out what they mean to everyone here.
I think that is quiet interesting since we all feel and think different about the music and the lyrics of in this case Katatonia. Maybe we should start some kind of thread where we regularly talk about songs(maybe not only by Katatonia?don't know) and how they speak to us.Let me know your opinion to this!
Another thing is that when i am in the Kata forum i often only see me on the list of the users browsing this forum"Where aaaaare you"? Than when i look on the DT forum for example i see a whole lot of more people. But i think that depends on the fact that everyone has their own special time for being in the net and that Dark Tranquillity have got a bit more fans,hehe.
When it comes to me i must say that i am a night surfer so i am here mostly around 0:00 and 2:00 or 3:00.

Ok, enough talk,let's live the music and the night!

 

[Carbonized]

That quote in your signature is one of my favorites Falling Bird.. "Headlights fuck the City"... i don't know why that is but it put in mind the traffic coming in and out, the word fuck being used as opposed to say something more 'Polically Correct', kinda like people are coming and going, passing through just wanting to get their business done without regard to those around them. How everyone is in a rush for something, maybe for some unknown sense of urgency.... i don't know, so much goes through my head all at once and i have no idea if any of it makes sense as i'm sure i barely managed to get out even a small part of what is running through my head. But also most of the time i have no words to really express what i feel about certain subjects since some strike me more deeply than others *shrug* One day i hope to make sense to myself!

 

[falling bird]

Cool that you think that too. To me it has something to do with that he wants to get away from all this hectic life, from too much light, wants to be in silence and where it's dark.
But now the big question is whether he means it as" somehow better without this headlights,fuck the city "or "somehow better without this,headlights fuck the city."

 

[Carbonized]

There's several things that can be taken and put to meaning in the song, but when i hear it, know the lyrics.... it speaks to me of just being numb, totally desensitized i think

 

[elric]

i'd always taken it as more 'somehow better without this, headlights fuck the city'... it just seems to flow better that way. i've sometimes thought it maybe should be taken as literally that, headlights fucking the city... like if you look out over a city at night, you'll see the lights of the city, and the headlights moving through it, in what i guess could be seen as sexual (penetrating the city, flowing through it, etc...) ... i agree it is certainly numbness, desensitization, and i think the headlights bit would tie in fine, sort of an isolation from anything human or natural, all he can see is this weird mechanical sex thing, nothing more... that's how i see it at least, just being absolutely isolated (never leaving the (dead)house), and looking out and feeling absolutely separated from the rest of humanity... this goes with later on, 'what do you say when you speak,' 'not awake until its dark,' etc... just expressing dissociation from the rest of the human world. thats my take on it at least.

 

[my dying groom]

Another thing is that when i am in the Kata forum i often only see me on the list of the users browsing this forum"Where aaaaare you"?

It's the "Invisible Mode":
"Selecting yes allows you to surf the forums without appearing in the 'Logged In Users' list."

I don't know why I've chosen this mode, but I certainly feel more comfortable this way. I'm a weirdo, I guess.

 

[yourdeadgroom]

Man, I've had some scary moments with people on invisible mode. I'd be busy reading a forum, and these new posts suddenly appear and I'm like "WTF, where the hell did that come from??"

Heh, I like spying on people