Katatonia - Dance of December Souls (1993)

 

Katatonia - Dance of December Souls (1993)

Tracklist front / back album covers

1. "Seven Dreaming Souls (Intro)"   0:45

2. "Gateways of Bereavement"   8:15

3. "In Silence Enshrined"   6:30

4. "Without God"   6:51

5. "Elohim Meth"   1:42

6. "Velvet Thorns (of Drynwhyl)"   13:56

7. "Tomb of Insomnia"   13:09

8. "Dancing December"   2:18

Total length:   53:35

 

Katatonia Band Members / Musicians

Jonas Renkse – vocals, drums, percussion

Anders Nyström – guitars

Guillaume Le Huche – bass

Dan Swanö – keyboards

Dan Swanö – mixing and engineering

Peter Dahl – mastering

Tom Martinsen – cover design, photos

Lennart Kaltea – photos

Dance of December Souls is the first full-length album by Katatonia. It was released on CD in 1993 by No Fashion Records and LP by Helion Records, released in the US in 1999 by Century Black. In 2004, record label Black Lodge reissued the album with all new artwork, but the band has stated on its website that it does not support this release for personal reasons. In 2007, the album was reissued, this time under Peaceville UK with a blue version of the original cover and all five songs from the Jhva Elohim Meth... The Revival EP appended as bonus tracks. In 2010, Svart Records released a double vinyl version, which also included all songs from the EP.

This album is the first release with Guillaume Le Huche as the bassist; prior to it, Anders Nyström had been contributing all guitar and bass guitar. The sound mixes the band's later style of doom metal with genres such as death metal and black metal.

Katatonia are a Swedish heavy metal band formed in Stockholm in 1991 by Jonas Renkse and Anders Nyström. The band started as a studio-only project for the duo, as an outlet for the band's love of death metal. Increasing popularity led them to add more band members for live performances, though outside of the band's founders, the lineup was a constantly changing, revolving door of musicians throughout the 1990s, notably including Mikael Åkerfeldt of the band Opeth for a period. After two death/doom albums, Dance of December Souls (1993) and Brave Murder Day (1996), problems with Renkse's vocal cords coupled with new musical influences led the band away from the screamed vocals of death metal to a more traditional, melodic form of heavy metal music.

The band released two more albums, Discouraged Ones (1998) and Tonight's Decision (1999), before settling into a stable quintet lineup for all 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), with the band slowly moving away from their metal sound while adding more progressive rock sounds to their work over time. While lineup changes started up again into the 2010s, Renkse and Nyström persisted, and the band continued on to release their ninth and tenth studio albums, Dead End Kings (2012) and The Fall of Hearts (2016). After touring in support of the album through 2017, the band entered a hiatus at the beginning of 2018. The band returned from their hiatus in February 2019, with their eleventh studio album, City Burials, released in April 2020.

Katatonia Band Members / Musicians

Jonas Renkse – drums (1991–1999), lead vocals (1991–1994, 1997–present), guitars (2009–present)

Anders Nyström – bass (1991, 1996), guitars, backing vocals (1991–1994, 1997–present), keyboards (1999–present)

Niklas Sandin – bass (2009–present)

Daniel Moilanen – drums (2015–present)

Roger Öjersson – guitars (2016–present)

Guillaume Le Huche – bass (1992–1994)

Mikael Åkerfeldt – unclean vocals (1996)

Fredrik Norrman – guitars (1996–2009), bass (1998–1999)

Mikael Oretoft – bass (1997–1998)

Mattias Norrman – bass (1999–2009)

Daniel Liljekvist – drums (1999–2014)

Per Eriksson – guitars (2009–2014)

Katatonia Discography Full

1993 Dance of December Souls

1996 Brave Murder Day

1998 Discouraged Ones

1999 Tonight's Decision

2001 Last Fair Deal Gone Down

2003 Viva Emptiness

2006 The Great Cold Distance

2009 Night Is the New Day

2012 Dead End Kings

2016 The Fall of Hearts

2020 City Burials

2023 Sky Void of Stars