This is most likely due to the fact Nyström’s impact on the band’s general sound has been severely limited on the past few albums. By his own account even, sir Blakkheim has clearly commented that his heart really lies in their older material, giving Jonas free rein on the artistic direction. Him leaving the band just externalized that. 

So ‘Nightmares as Extensions of the Waking State’ is very much a natural progression for Katatonia’s musical evolution to a stage where considering them as a metal band is contentious at best and mainly depends on the claimant’s insistence to include them to this to that genre. 

One can draw similarities there to the journey that for instance, Anathema has gone through from the mid nineties through the noughties from seminal death doom band to melancholic progressive rock. In analogous fashion Katatonia has taken a similar path, starting out as a rather raw amalgamation of black, death and doom on an early release like ‘Dance of December Souls’ via the bleak avantgarde doom on ‘Brave Murder Day’ to their prime period of dismal dark rock driven ranging from ‘Discouraged Ones’  at the end of the nineties all the way through to ‘The Great Cold Distance’ in 2006. From then on and especially since ‘Fall of Hearts’, they dialed down the metal and the rocking guitar parts, as Nyström himself seemingly became less and less involved in the songwriting process. 

Now on the album number thirteen: ‘Nightmares as Extensions of the Waking State’. ‘Thrice’ and ‘The Liquid Eye’ start out surprisingly heavy, as if if Renske wanted to prove that they’re still a heavy band with the two new guiter players. Unfortunately, these two are definitely not the best tracks on the album. Those angular, hard riffs do their best to shake you up but despite the shock therapy my attention tends to drift quite rapidly. 

 ‘Wind of No Change’  fairs slightly better. Apart from being another example of how Jonas Renske likes to play a dark twist on far more optimistically flavoured pop songs, how could one resist that chants “ Hail Satan” like a mantra as if they were some Venom tribute band. 

‘Lilac’ is the first real gem on the record here and was quite logically chosen as the first single. Followed by ‘Temporal’ wich is probably as close to classic Katatonia as you’re going to get on this record. With a bit of imagination this could have been on ‘The Great Cold Distance’. 

‘Departure Falls’ and ‘Warden’ has my interest fading somewhat, coming off a bit uninspired. However, the album is far form over. With ‘The Light I Bleed’ comes a heartwrenching ballad and a real gem of a composition. 

‘Efter Solen’ is this album’s curveball and in honesty, the most interesting song by far of the whole record. It’s the first one where all lyrics are in their native Swedish and also serves as a foray into more of a trip hop inspired style. 

 ‘In the Event of’ closes the album with some decent classic rock soloing and proggy synths. Not a bad closer if somewhat unassuming after the mesmerizing, preceding track. 

It’s sort of telling if the best song on your album is the one where you make a radical departure from your trademark sign. Maybe it’s a sign for the band that they’ve ridden the progressive rock with a melancholic twist pony for long enough now and that it’s time to really embrace new things. I, for one, would not mind them exploring other fields, maybe just not in Swedish though, I prefer to listen to my music without having to ask my friendly neighborhood AI friend for the translation.

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