You could describe Katatonia as many things across their career. Scrappy death-doom upstarts in the early-to-mid-90s, goth metal miserabilists at the turn of the millennium, then prog metal maestros starting with 2006’s The Great Cold
Distance. One description you’d seldom use is “budding comedians”. And in fairness, with Nightmares As Extensions Of The Waking State, you still probably wouldn’t.
But there’s a pointed sense of humour at points of Nightmares... that offsets their career-long penchant for melancholia. Ish. It’s worth noting that this is the first Katatonia album without co-founder and guitarist Anders Nyström, who officially announced his departure from the group barely a month before the album was announced. Anders attributed his departure to creative differences with vocalist Jonas Renkse – namely that the band’s earlier material was being neglected.
