Stargazer Scholar
In 1741, J.S. Bach published a set of compositions that later became known as the Goldberg Variations, all the thirty pieces whereof explored the bass line and the chord progression of a single aria. In 1934, Sergey Rachmaninoff wrote his Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini, which reproduced, inverted, and otherwise transfigured the great Italian’s 24th Caprice. In 2025, Katatonia’s new album, Nightmares as Extensions of the Waking State, comes out… And I reckon you can see what I’m driving at.
I don’t think I’ve ever met a casual Katatonia enjoyer. The band either captivates you completely and irrevocably or leaves you indifferent. Whether due to the patience required to fully appreciate how multilayered its music actually is, the lack of ostentatious bombast, or the downright depressive lyrical content, it may take a while to let the Swedish kings of gloom insinuate themselves into your subconsciousness. But once they do, there’s no way back.
It’s ironic how the band’s first album following the much-deplored departure of founding guitarist Anders Nyström has turned out to be its first post-hiatus effort to exhibit the strongest pre-hiatus vibes. The first two songs are shocking in how much they remind me of the Night Is the New Day and Dead End Kings eras respectively. The brilliant ‘Wind of No Change’ marks the return of the new Katatonia, though, as its unexpected choirs give a transcendent touch to a personal nightmare, brought into a flickering existence through a constant alternation between the haunting ambiance of its verses and the march-like menace of its refrains.
The rest of the album flows in a similarly dynamic manner. Almost every song has some subtle tweaks brought in by the renewed lineup, as a drum fill or an intricate solo catches your attention. However, most of those exquisitely pensive vocal melodies, delivered in Jonas Renkse’s trademark velvet croon, are exactly what you would expect them to be, and the arrangements and rhythmic patterns themselves don’t wholly escape familiarity either. More than once during my many spins did I catch myself spotting a passage that vaguely reminded me of something the band had done before, as almost every preceding record starting with The Great Cold Distance left its mark on Nightmares. The only exception comes in the form of the gorgeous electronic ballad, ‘Efter Solen’, fully performed in Swedish. A new, refreshing take on the band’s sound, this song elaborates on the ideas previously only hinted at with ‘Lacquer’, and blooms into a stately minimalist revelation that introduces some underused scales into Jonas’s singing and brings a bit of warmth into the deceptively restrained world of Katatonia.
Frankly, I think this song should have been the closer, as the transition back into English feels a bit jarring every time it hits. However, the concluding track itself, ‘In the Event of’, wins me over eventually and ends the record on a very elegant note.
The analogy I brought up in the introduction sums up my feelings about Nightmares. It’s a set of variations on the themes of Katatonia, essentially. Never exactly self-quoting, but comfortably familiar and inexplicably cozy. Is this necessarily a bad thing? Well, as the great composers of the past have managed to prove many times over, context matters almost as much as the notes themselves. A subtle tweak can bring about a huge change of perspective, and similar melodies can be induced to work differently in varying settings. And Katatonia knows how to do it.
Albums like Nightmares are extremely hard to rate. I enjoy every second of it, and yet if I were put to the preposterous task of ranking the band’s discography, it would probably end up on the lower end of the spectrum. Katatonia has been one of my favorite bands for a very long time, a band that brought me solace when nothing else could. And while I realize that albums like this rejoice in exploring the existing foundation and only tacitly move the artist forward, I find this ethereal Nordic elegance irresistible, and I’ll end up playing the hell out of this music in years to come. But to you, dear reader, it might be different for the reasons above stated… Hail to the kings.
Label: Napalm Records
Release date: 6 June 2025
Website: https://katatonia.com/
Country: Sweden
Score: 4.0/5 (but may be lower for those immune to Scholar’s fanboy sensibilities)
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