You may bash me for this but...

[blacK.eXe]

... Today was the day i took a first listen to Katatonia. I´ve been into Metal since many years now, but do you know the phenomenon of not knowing a band for years just to realize they are great? That´s what happened to me... a friend was over at my place today for some recording and he showed my their latest CD.... I am so stunned and chilled by them I cant describe it! great music to have a chill and enjoy some beer!Also love the production of the latest album! Can you recommend some albums i HAVE to hear by them? would really appreciate it!

greetings.

 

[P-E]

I got into them yesterday.

You really gotta have The Great Cold Distance, it's wonderful.

 

[MarcusGHedwig]

I've been listening to Katatonia since "Last Fair Deal Gone Down", and quite honestly I think each album has been better than the last - in other words, if you started with the masterpiece that is "Night is the New Day", then IMO it's gonna be all downhill from there I'm afraid But the older stuff is still awesome too, though it gets progressively rawer and (believe it or not) heavier the further back you get; their super-old stuff didn't even have singing (not really a fan of that)

 

[Zack Uidl]

I have to agree with Marcus. I think the newest one is their best and I think they just keep getting better. Not to say that the others are bad by any means, just much better and better. Only heard a few albums though

 

[blacK.eXe]

Thanks for the answers so far! I am not afraid of being spoilt by the latest album... I really enjoy to see a bands progress over different albums and i dont have to listen to them chronological to be satisfied... Right now I am listening to some songs of The Great Cold Distance via YouTube. I really fell in love with this band in just a few hours. The funny side is, last time this happened to me was when I got into Opeth very fast The parallelism is indisputable

 

[XnaySaturo]

NITND and TGCD are pretty much all I've been listening to this past month. I'm so pissed I missed their show this summer.

Can't seem to get into the other records though, but I can't say I gave them much of a chance.

 

[LeSedna]

Night is the new day is absolutely wonderful. It's so delicate.

 

[Harry Hughes]

Night is the New Day is perfect.
I don't give pure 10/10s to albums often, but NITND honestly really deserves it.
The song writing, arrangements, instrumentation, it's all perfect.
Definitely the best vocal performance of Jonas' career. His vocal phrasing and power is just incredible.
The Great Cold Distance is great too. The thing I don't like about it, is that I feel it starts off on a kinda bad note with the opening track. Easily the weakest track on the album IMHO.
Everything after that is gold though.

 

[egan.]

The last two really amped up the technicality a lot and have the most in common if any two consecutive albums they've released IMO. I think all of their stuff is great but for whatever reason LFDGD and TGCD speak to me the most personally-- but seriously it's hard to go wrong.

 

[Virgil.]

Agree with everyone else. Their last two are pickle tits.

 

[HandsOfDespair]

My favorite is probably TGCD, but I love all their albums since Tonights Decision. I discovered the band before TGCD, with Viva Emptiness, and I still really like Viva Emptiness. I discovered them because I was a big fan of Opeth at this time and I though Katatonia were similar

 

[Damian B]

I love the latest album, the TGCD still wins out for me. Get that album immediately.

 

[MarcusGHedwig]

Night is the New Day is perfect.
I don't give pure 10/10s to albums often, but NITND honestly really deserves it.
The song writing, arrangements, instrumentation, it's all perfect.
Definitely the best vocal performance of Jonas' career. His vocal phrasing and power is just incredible.
The Great Cold Distance is great too. The thing I don't like about it, is that I feel it starts off on a kinda bad note with the opening track. Easily the weakest track on the album IMHO.
Everything after that is gold though.

Interesting, I think "Leaders" is one of the best tracks on the album, whereas I'm not that crazy about "Soil's Song", "Consternation", or the last two tracks

 

[Sickan]

Interesting, I think "Leaders" is one of the best tracks on the album, whereas I'm not that crazy about "Soil's Song", "Consternation", or the last two tracks

Whaaat, Soil's Song is probably my favorite Katatonia song :c

 

[XnaySaturo]

Interesting, I think "Leaders" is one of the best tracks on the album, whereas I'm not that crazy about "Soil's Song", "Consternation", or the last two tracks

I'm with you for the first part, but I think Soil's Song and Consternation are some of the best on the record.

When it comes to NITND, I love 'em all except the last track, which I pretty much always skip.

 

[MarcusGHedwig]

I guess it's just the seemingly utter randomness and nonsense of the lyrics of Soil's Song that bug me, and musically it just is kind of an unmemorable little 6/8 vamp IMO

As for Consternation, it's just a bit too...weird and kinda dissonant for my tastes

 

[Josh Burgess]

Night is the New Day and The Great Cold Distance are definitely my favorites. Great band.

 

[Pedro Teixeira]

Night is the new day sounds like fucking velvet! Even the heavy parts are so smooth and like Lesedna said... so delicate.

I love TGCD as well... does anyone know if Jens used more than one bass track? Whenever I listen to it, mainly on headphones it seems that there are panned bass tracks, mainly on choruses or some other parts... it feels really awkward to me

 

[XnaySaturo]

The bass on Ghost Reveries is a few different basses, in to an Ampeg SVT amp and a 8x10 cab. Sounded beautiful. Neumann U87, MD421, SM57 and a Di.
Egan mentioned TGCD bass, i personally love that sound. It's pretty much the same amp setup, a Warwick bass, very distinct bass player, and a stereo mic setup: One U87, one SM91 on a chair (!) and one Sansamped Di. I messed around with EQ and phase, made a hard pan L/R on the mics and had the distorted signal with very little bass in the center. I made them work in mono, and then it sounded HUGE in stereo. We also dual tracked some bass parts where the bass played without the rhythms to give it even more air.

Watershed was recorded with a Mesa Rectifier in to a 4x10 Ampeg Cab, mixed with the Di. Several mic's, don't remember.

He mentioned this in a thread on the forums a couple of months ago.

 

[LeSedna]

I love how the last two albums snare is not a fat one but just cuts through with the little body it has. It's like the whole kit is not pushed to compression-land, and still the guitars don't eat it up too much. Also, love the round bass on many songs. Not an "in your face" sound, that I dig a lot.