Katatonia Advice

Slunk

Slunk

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Katatonia seems to be always "around" my favorite bands, if you know what I mean. I keep hearing about them, and LASTFM always reminds me that they are similar to opeth "which dominates my plays".

I've finally decided to check them out, but I'm unsure about which album to get. I may be BSing here, but I think I remember hearing that the lead singer used to growl in the past, but his voice broke, and now they are more melodic. Which phase do you enjoy most? And most importantly, which album(s) should I pick up?
 
This one is easy. I would recommend "Brave Murder Day" since Mike does vocals on it. I just picked it up myself (I was a Katatonia virgin too). I am really getting into it...
 
For Mike's vocals, get Brave Murder Day.

For Jonas' growling vocals, get Dance of December Souls.

For the melodic Kat's, they're all good (except Discouraged Ones, which I think is pretty boring). The advice about starting with The Great Cold Distance and working backwards is good advice, as well.

New one comes out this fall!!:cool:

EDIT: If you get BMD remastered, it includes the EP For Funerals To Come. So you get Mike and Jonas all in one! :)
 
Brave Murder Day is amazing for the death/doom period, Tonight's Decision is amazing for the melodic period. Dance of December Souls is pretty good. Other than that I don't really like their stuff though I have Great Cold Distance and Discouraged Ones. Definitely didn't like Viva Emptiness or Last Fair Deal Gone Down.

Also, just remember, basically none of the bands last.fm suggests with Opeth are similar to them. I mean seriously, they suggest Gojira lol.
 
Great Cold Distance > Tonights Decision > Viva Emptiness > Dance of December Souls > Last Fair Deal Gone Down > Discouraged Ones > Brave Murder Day.

that's my opinion.

the EP's are pure win though, Jhva Elohim Meth... The Revival and Saw You Drown.
 
Great Cold Distance > Tonights Decision > Last Fair Deal Gone Down > Discouraged Ones > Viva Emptiness > Dance of December Souls > Brave Murder Day.
 
I don't think it's about hate..it's just that IMO Katatonia moved in the right direction and now they are making excellent music, no matter if it's doom or death or goth metal or whatever you want to call it.
 
Well yea, hate is an exaggeration, but to me their 90's material (except Discouraged Ones for being a lil boring but still good) will always be the classics, but I guess no one agrees.
 
Antyman said:
Great Cold Distance > Tonights Decision > Viva Emptiness > Dance of December Souls > Last Fair Deal Gone Down > Discouraged Ones > Brave Murder Day.

that's my opinion.

the EP's are pure win though, Jhva Elohim Meth... The Revival and Saw You Drown.
Click to expand...

For Funerals To Come, Sounds of Decay aswell :p

I started my Katatonia spree with Brave Murder Day, then TGCD and filled in the gaps randomly. Now I have a massive collection of CDs, vinyl and tapes :)
 
gonna have to say that dance of december souls is better than anything else they've done, brave murder day included. not to say that the rest of their disco isn't good or even great but at the same time, dods was practically in a league of it's own at the time (alongside other classics like paradise lost's "gothic" from two years earlier and my dying bride's "turn loose the swans") and really is a landmark of the death/doom genre
 
^ I can agree on that it's one of the best doom albums ever made and that it's "revolutionary". but I sometimes fall asleep listening to it.

a fun thing about it is in.. uhm.. In Sílence Enshrined (I believe), the riff that comes in after a while, is the same riff Metallica used in Unforgiven II (exact same almost). Which from the eginning was used in the Iron Maiden song.. Children of the Damned (?)..

so did Metallica rip a ripped riff?
 
Slunk said:
Katatonia seems to be always "around" my favorite bands, if you know what I mean. I keep hearing about them, and LASTFM always reminds me that they are similar to opeth "which dominates my plays".

I've finally decided to check them out, but I'm unsure about which album to get. I may be BSing here, but I think I remember hearing that the lead singer used to growl in the past, but his voice broke, and now they are more melodic. Which phase do you enjoy most? And most importantly, which album(s) should I pick up?
Click to expand...
Don't always trust what last.fm recommends you, its usually only at a really basic level of similarity.

The only thing really connecting Opeth and Katatonia are the 2 records Mikael ended up doing vocals for, and even then musically they were quite different from Opeth. The 2 bands never really sounded very much like eachother in the 90s and even less so now. But if you're a big Opeth fan the best starting point would be "Brave Murder Day" because of Mikael's vocals (IMO his best vocal performance, and I honestly mean that) and the doom/death metal musical style.

My favourite Katatonia "phase" is the doom-death/depressive rock period of Brave Murder Day-Sounds of Decay-Discouraged Ones, but to be honest with you all their albums are worth listening to because they're all packed with great songs, whatever the style of music is. Dance of December souls is a cult classic Doom Metal album, and The Great Cold Distance is a great, modern alternative metal album.
 
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