So, Katatonia are back in the studio, and the new Anathema album is out in April. It's been a while since I last posted, and wasn't sure if this should go in metal or general, as both used to be metal but now are... not.

But you can hear the new Anathema song here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKIQGpl0NiY

I'm rather excited. Anybody else? I'll literally cry a manly tear of joy if they tour together (though if it clashes with Roadburn, it will be womanly tears of sorrow.) I had the misfortune to see Katatonia and Paradise Lost a couple of years back, Katatonia (as always) were absolutely excellent. Paradise Lost though... Not very good at all. Played the shittier, newer stuff, and I left after half an hour.

Are you shitting me??? God damn so many new albums coming out this year! Can't say I'm that excited about Katatonia's newest since I haven't enjoyed their latest, but a new Anathema album is always welcomed.

I'll be awaiting the Katatonia strongly as that's one of my favorite bands ever and their last three albums have been absolutely perfect in my eyes. That's actually my most anticipated album of the year with the great new Pharaoh in my rear view mirror.

As for Anathema, I loved their 90s albums (particularly Judgement) but haven't given the newer stuff a try. Will give it a listen at least.

The newer output from both bands is incredible, you should definitely get on it Metal_Detector. I can't say enough great things about all new Anathema.

That Anathema song is very good! If the album follows that golden path it will be yet another one to buy this year.

I didn't check out the last Katatonia album at all but I did with Anathema's and I loved it. "Thin Air" is probably my favorite track by the band next to "Kingdom" and a couple others. This new song was pretty good, and makes me look forward to this new album. Glad to see that they aren't lapsing into another long wait of over 5 years for another album.

Count me in, I quite liked this new song too. Guess I'll have to check out their last album.

I haven't listened to much Katatonia but I'm excited for the new Anathema. We're Here Because We're Here is a beautiful release.

I'm eagerly awaiting the new Katatonia. That Anathema song is beautiful, I can't stop listening to it! Haven't heard their latest album, I really should get to that.

I love it, Anathema is one of my favourite bands. I never liked their Death Doom days,but everything they've done after that has been beautiful and has amazing lyrics.

The last Katatonia album I enjoyed was Viva Emptiness. I will probably never listen to the new one. And I have no idea who Anathema is...

Really!? Wow...

Listen to Judgement or Alternative 4. That'll give you a good representation of them.

Yes sir.

Well, I listened to some of it, and it wasn't bad. I think I would have liked it alot more when I was younger, but my tastes are different now. The only reason I really like the stuff like that that I do is because it was kind of grandfathered in throughout the years. Maybe after a few more listens it will grab me a little better.

You didn't dig Great Cold Distance??

Honestly no, man. But as I said, my tastes have changed, it might have more to do with that than anything. I am not discrediting the band's new material. I've just gotten further away from that style over the years

Night is the New Day is about as far from Viva Emptiness as Brave Murder Day at least aesthetically but I can see skipping Great Cold Distance. I'm certainly looking forward to whatever Renski has to offer this year

I'm looking forward to both, especially the Katatonia album. I'm curious to see who has written most of the material though, Night is the New Day Renkse did the majority of the guitar work

I am really excited about the new Anathema album. Absolutely loved falling deeper. As for Katatonia, their only great album is Dance of December Souls. I'm not a huge fan of their later material. I'll still check out the new album. Some downtempo pop rock won't do any hard to me

Great song. Most promising preview for an album I've heard this year.

The last Katatonia album I owned and after subsequently destroyed was Viva emptiness, I haven't heard a promising band go to shit that horridly until the most recent MA. Its a shame because the band was masterful on Dance of December souls and Jhva Elohim Meth. As for Anathema, I haven't heard much of their material, but its probably much better than the 'Woe is me' shitty latter Katatonia.

Can't you people stop bitching about Dance of December Souls and Brave Murder Day?

Most of you probably haven't even witnessed those albums getting out and just to make sure...their 'new' style ain't new. The shift of style happened a long time ago, although we all know that they sound different on every album.

Well there's the rub..if they sound different on every album, exactly what change do you think people are referring to? I suspect everyone drops off with a different Katatonia album. I think the last one I liked was last Fair Deal gone Down, and even by then there was some pretty questionable stuff in their discography. Anyway, sorry that you don't like the bitching, but this thread is to discuss these two bands, not to endlessly sing their praises, though of course some of that is fine and warranted.

I still have a lot of respect for Anathema but unconsciously I think I've never really forgiven them for A Fine Day to Exit. If we're talking about disappointing follow-ups to great albums that one simply has to qualify. I felt like crying when I first listened to that, and it wasn't due to emotional resonance. Fuck Radiohead! Still, I'm told We're Here Because We're Here is really good, and I've yet to even give that one a try.

Edit: Just listened to the new Anathema song, in fact, and it's a fine piece of music. Danny's guitar solo is wonderful. I was beginning to think this band barely used guitars in their music anymore, which in their case had signified a definite loss of enthusiasm from me. This is either a return to form or I should really pay attention to the last album.

Definitely looking forward to the new Anathema they always managed to put out great material.

I don't understand the flak Katatonia gets. I personally enjoy the rockish stuff they've been doing,you have to take it for what it is. It's not anything world changing but it's solid music.

Sure, but some people were really affected by their early music on an emotional level; its' not unreasonable to expect a band to be able to pull off the same kind of power even if their style changes.

While I agree with you that the complaints are 100% warranted, I agree with him that it is old already. I knew without even opening the thread that out of the first 10 posts there would be at least 6 complaining that "the last good thing Katatonia did was DoDS" and again, while everybody has the right to that opinion... it's tired.

Anyway, while I'm really looking forward to the Katatonia, I can't really get into newer Anathema. I mean, I love A Natural Disaster with all my heart, I just couldn't get into We're Here. At all.

Not really a big fan of the new Katatonia. Don't hate them, but they're definitely not great. Anathema does the whole atmospheric rock a lot better imo; vocally they're just much stronger and their songs tend to be a lot more interesting.

EDIT: Dance of December Souls is an amazing album however. Definitely the band's best and way better than Anathema's doom metal albums.

I'm the same way. New Katatonia is good but there's rarely a whole album's worth of awesome vocal lines and composition to back it up. Anathema are all over that shit, or at least attempt to be. There are other bands doing the depressive rock gig better than Katatonia.

I've really loved everything Katatonia has released, and have accepted every stylistic change they've been through over the years. Sure, it would be awesome if they had released at least one more full length along the lines of 'Dance Of December Souls', but I'd say I love 'Night Is The New Day' just as much as their early works, albeit for radically different reasons.

So yeah, I'm very much looking forward to hear what direction their next release takes.

I used to enjoy Katatonia as that occasional lighter snack of heavy, groovy rock/metal music, but I've long since stopped craving such things. Brave Murder Day is already an album I don't care much for, and even my appreciation for the debut has somewhat dwindled. Night Is The New Day sounded good at first, but now I don't care for it at all, and their shoddy live performance last summer sealed my dissatisfaction with the band.

Anathema, I'm afraid, has a similar fate, though it happened more gradually and I never developed any particular annoyment at their stuff (and I enjoyed their live show!). I enjoyed We're Here, and got a few good kicks out of songs like Dreaming Light, Everything and especially A Simple Mistake, but now I don't listen to it much. I used to absolutely love A Natural Disaster, and though I think my huge appreciation for it has run its course, it's still a great album. I can never forget how the sheer emotional intensity of Balance/Closer struck me. I also liked A Fine Day, though it soon began clear to me that only a couple of songs were anywhere near Anathema's level.

It's nowhere near the predecessor's level of artistic quality. The emotions of A Natural Disaster seemed incredibly true, honest and often violently intense, whereas the serenity and peace of We're Here (other than A Simple Mistake and perhaps Universal) is not nearly as inspiring or stimulating.

With Anathema, for me it was always about the trilogy ternity/Alternative Four/Judgment as far as the rock stuff goes. I listened to those albums so much in late highschool/first year university that even though it's been a long time since I put them on now I remember them so clearly that I almost feel I don't have to. Very therapeutic records, for me, anyway. It was simultaneously in line with the melancholy I was feeling and affirming. Then A Fine Day showed up and I more or less said "to hell with you guys, then!" (without really meaning to do it mind you)...

That tends to be the reaction when the newest album features a disappointing style shift. By the time I began listening to Anathema, A Natural Disaster had already come out, and therefore I had no fear of Anathema having lost it. My favourites were the aforementioned, Judgement and Pentecost III. Alternative 4 was completely fine, and I especially liked the atmospheric title track. I considered Fragile Dreams incredibly overrated until I heard it live (the energy!), and overall thought Judgement to be a better album in every way (other than that it lacked a song like Alternative 4), whereas Alternative 4 was superior to Eternity. Now, I appreciate the raw energy of Eternity more, though musically it's not probably as strong as its followers. Ascension is an awesome song, anyways.

I think Eternity is special because it's far more layered and symphonic (in scope I mean, not in sound) than the following albums. It's sort of, as you might expect, the melding of the more expansive metal sound they had been going for earlier with the rock approach they were trying out at the time. The Pink Floyd vibe is very strong at times. Alternative Four was much more stripped down, far, far more raw in a sense, and it took me a while to get used to that..but it came to feel like a very honest and "real" personal recording because of that, and I guess I also came to appreciate it more.

The thing that I like about Eternity is that it still sounds a bit harsh at times. Not heavy, but vocally a bit loud and pissed off.

More stripped down, and remarkably more restrained and straightforward for the most part - though Eternity had songs like Angelica, the performance had its own characteristics peculiar to Eternity, mainly the rawness and some underlying power. Curiously, along with Judgement, Alternative 4 was the one I found the most accessible.

Vincent sounds like he was on speed at times . It creates a strange contrast when the music itself is (at least) superficially calm, which indeed recalls Roger Waters' stuff. There is sometimes a manic quality to it.

The vocals are also quite unpolished on Eternity, which adds to its manic flavour perhaps but doesn't necessarily help its accessibility. I'm quite impressed with Vincent having been able to improve his vocals with passing time...quite the opposite happens to most singers.

He was a beast when it comes to harsh vocals which somehow remind me a lot of DDoS era Katatonia. Loved those sharp, vicious screams he did on TSE. His clean vocals aren't bad either, and as I mentioned earlier way better than Jonas Renske. I wouldn't say he improved, but I wouldn't say he's gone downhill either.

Elysium! To dust! Anyways,this thread makes me think I should give Eternity another shot. It's easily my least favourite. Seems so unmemorable.

I like the vocals on Eternity as well, but surely you agree that from a musical perspective, his ability to sustain and hold a note with a good amount of power has improved a hell of a lot since that album?