Katatonia

Katatonia is a Swedish heavy metal band formed in Stockholm in 1991 by Jonas Renkse and Anders Nyström. The band started as a studio-only outlet for their love of death metal. Increasing popularity led to more band members for live performances, though outside of the band's founders, the lineup was a constantly changing musicians throughout the 1990s, including Mikael Åkerfeldt of Opeth for a period. After two albums, Dance of December Souls (1993) and Brave Murder Day (1996), problems with Renkse's vocal cords coupled with new musical influences caused the band to avoid the screamed vocals of black and death metal in favor of traditional, melodic progressive rock. Katatonia released Discouraged Ones (1998) and Tonight's Decision (1999), before settling into a quintet for the remainder of the 2000s. The band released four more albums with said lineup: Last Fair Deal Gone Down (2001), Viva Emptiness (2003), The Great Cold Distance (2006) and Night Is the New Day (2009). The band moved away from traditional metal and added progressive rock influences over time. While the background lineup changes continued into the 2010s, Renkse and Nyström persisted. The band released their ninth and tenth studio albums, Dead End Kings (2012) and The Fall of Hearts (2016), respectively. After touring in support of The Fall of Hearts album throughout 2017, the band went into a semi-hiatus at the beginning of 2018. Katatonia returned in February 2019 with their eleventh studio album, City Burials (2020), followed by their twelfth studio album, Sky Void of Stars (2023), and thirteenth studio album, Nightmares as Extensions of the Waking State (2025).