Album Review - Katatonia - Nightmares as Extensions of the Waking State (2025, Napalm Records)

Stuart Ball
9 hours ago
7 min read

Written: 24th May 2025

Whatever your views on their changing styles, for close to thirty five years, Katatonia have proved that stagnation is not a word in their lexicon. From their death / doom metal roots, they have evolved through a range of sub-genres. Via gothic metal, dark progressive rock and in recent years, emotional, introspective metal, they have weaved their melancholic narrative.

Nightmares As Extensions Of The Waking State is notable as the band’s first release without founding member Anders Nyström. “I haven’t really spoken to him about it but, in my way of seeing it, he wasn’t happy with being in a band, at least not this band,” Jonas Renkse says to explain his former musical partner’s exit. “He didn’t want to tour. He didn’t write music for a long time. He wasn’t very interested in band stuff: meetings, rehearsals. He wasn’t really there.”

It will come as no surprise, particularly following the departure of Nyström, that Nightmares… does not find the band returning to their heaviest styles but there is, at times, the feel of experimentation and some of the darkest moments in their discography for some time. “Nightmares… is a very riff-based and very guitar-heavy album,” says Jonas Renkse. “When I was writing it, I knew that we would have a couple of new guitar players coming in. And, if you have two guitarists joining, you don’t want to present them with songs that are 60 percent keyboards. Maybe I subconsciously felt that I had to come up with some cool riffs so that they’d still want to join the band!”

I was a big fan of the band’s last album, Sky Void of Stars (it made number four in my Top 40 Albums of 2023) and from the outset, it is apparent that Nightmares… is not as immediate as its predecessor and although the distinctive voice and some of the hooks remain, there is a more malevolent, sinister streak running throughout the heart of the album.

Opening track Thrice, begins with crunching percussion and guitars before almost instantly dissolving into an almost ambient verse that builds towards a chorus via a vibrant solo just after the forty second mark. At this point, the track begins to take hold as the riffs become increasingly intense and the rhythm section sets out a clear direction for us. Lyrically, Thrice is a haunting meditation on emotional entanglement, memory and inner struggle. I find you asleep / Dusk on your eyelids / I break into your dream / With hands made of glass / And I hold back the tears / When I feel what’s on your mind / Memories of your years / Stars not yet aligned. Comparing Thrice to Austerity (the opening song on Sky Void Of Stars – a track I really enjoy), there is further evidence that Katatonia are trying to set a different mood here. Without doubt, Thrice has moments of melody but not in the same fashion as the expansive chorus of Austerity. Thrice pulls us into its tangled web with some wonderful use of extremes in its dynamics and a darker story to tell.

As can be found on the much of the album, The Liquid Eye uses its balance between power and moments of calm extremely effectively. While keyboards still play an important part in the sound of Nightmares…, Jonas lives up to his promise of a more riff-based collection of songs. Within the space of less than four minutes, The Liquid Eye moves through several different sections. During the opening moments of the song, gently picked guitar sits over an interesting rhythm from drummer Daniel Moilanen. New guitarists Nico Elgstrand and Sebastian Svalland form an extremely effective partnership and clearly understand what Renkse is expecting from them. The changes from quieter to louder segments on the track are well thought out and vary in structure.

Wind Of No Change – currently my favourite track on the album – is a bleak, poetic critique of spiritual decay, modern disillusionment and the questioning of any divine presence in our lives. Assemble a temple of steel / To stand on top of that building / The soaring tomb / With the scaffolding reaching ever higher / And lord Jesus / Or what’s his name again / Did he watch us come out of the fire / Unchanged. Beginning with an ominous bassline from Niklas Sandlin, Wind Of No Change, alters our perceptions of what we have heard on the album thus far. Dark, gothic choral voices meld with crunching riffs, bringing a differing identity to the album. Renkse’s measured delivery acts as an emotional anchor even as the world around him fractures. An agonised guitar solo leads us towards the track’s conclusion as Renske intones Hail Satan, perhaps a turn towards darker truths, hopelessness and questioning. “I just had this riff going, and I thought it had a bit of a heavy metal feel to it, or even a Slayer vibe,” the frontman explains. “And then I thought, maybe I should write something Satanic, because I haven’t really touched that with Katatonia since we did our first demo.”

The next two tracks are the already released Lilac and Temporal, the two most easily digestible tracks. It is probably quite safe to say that if you have already listened to them, your reaction to them will mirror much of what you feel about the rest of the album. Lilac – which contains one of the best guitar solos on Nightmares… - is a song of contrasts, the moments of icy stillness giving way to surging textured choruses. Rather than wallowing, it drifts - calm but frayed. Despite the personal lyrics, which voice a desire to forget painful memories, Renkse sounds unshaken, his vocals holding firm even as the instruments circle around him like spectres. There is a sense of waiting here, of searching for a release that never quite arrives. There is beauty in how the track resists total resolution, instead fading away, lingering in ambiguity.

Temporal – another highlight of the album - starts with pensive guitar before lush synths and percussion descend and then a truly gorgeous – but far too short - guitar solo envelops us in a celestial feel. Exploring themes of impermanence, vivid imagery in the lyrics illustrate the protagonist’s sense of alienation. Moving splinters through the mind / Hope smashed to smithereens / Baby I’m astray within the colours of your night / Went away to come back again / Better off. The initial solo returns later in the track and we are treated to an even better one during the central instrumental section. Temporal is perfectly positioned on the album, bringing – musically at least – some brighter moments to the sombre core and moments of lighter texture that balance the heavier themes.

Departure Trails exhibits an understated presence throughout, with little change in dynamics or tempo. The solos are restrained and aiming for the atmospheric rather than soaring and fiery. When reviewing albums, I obviously listen to them all the way through several times but I also have tracks on repeat when looking for individual details. Departure Trails works far better in the former of these settings. It does not stand up to continual repeated listens nearly as well as almost any other song. In the context of the album, it does add another layer of atmosphere but it is by far the least memorable song on Nightmares….

Though seventh track Warden carries a comparable sense of restraint at points, it delivers greater satisfaction by incorporating contrasting sections, and has a more impactful chorus that would not be out of place on Sky Void Of Stars. The Light Which I Bleed – a song that worms its way under your skin a little further with each listen - contains some of the heaviest elements on the album and lyrically reveals a persistent inner conflict, portraying the cost of personal sacrifice. I have a broken armour / For all my future battles / I’ve come to pay you again / The worthless currency of being.

Penultimate track Efter Solen – sung entirely in Swedish – is a bewitching, spiralling piece built around piano and pulsating synths, adding another style to the album. With a tender vocal, the lyrics evoke a quiet solitude lingering after the sun sets, mapping the delicate balance between loss and renewal. Det blir nog inte än / Men när blir det / Tänk om allt var inställt rätt / Kontrasten och skärpan / Utanför nattens mur / Men med mörkret kvar över ögats lins. (It probably won’t happen yet / But when will it / What if everything was set right / The contrast and sharpness / Outside the wall of night / But with darkness still over the eye’s lens).

Final track In The Event Of narrates a nightmare that Jonas Renkse experienced more than ten years ago, the artwork of Nightmares… being a direct illustration of the lyrics. “It was supposed to be day, but it was super dark,” Jonas remembers of his dream. “Looking at the sky, you could see flashes of fire behind dark clouds. And there were chains coming from the sky. The last line of the song is, ‘Mothers waiting in rows for the shadows of their children.’ I could see fences, a place where you would keep people captured, and mothers standing there, waiting for their children to come back.” There is a sense of the climatic about In The Event Of and there is some exquisite guitar work – the guitar solo at 2:45, for example – and the tracks plays like an amalgamation of everything the album has offered. A fitting end to a strong album.

Despite a slight dip in the middle with Departure Trails, Nightmares As Extensions Of The Waking State is a powerful and darkly moody chapter in the evolution of Katatonia. Even though this is a natural next step, it will not in any way satisfy fans who still - and rather pointlessly - yearn for a return to the band’s much earlier sound. However, the tone and style of this album can hardly be unexpected.

The addition of Nico Elgstrand and Sebastian Svalland to the line-up has been more than successful and Jonas Renkse’s presence acts as the guiding thread through the shifting tones and textures, keeping everything tethered. “This is a great place to be in,” Jonas says of the Katatonia of 2025. “Inspiration-wise, it’s so good to be surrounded with people that come in with energy and ideas and a strong will to take part, to take the band further."

Although – compared to Sky Void Of Stars at least - it has fewer big choruses and takes more time to reveal its treasures, Nightmares… is almost everything fans of modern day Katatonia could desire. Gripping. Unsettling. Immersive.

Nightmares as Extensions of the Waking State is released on 6th June 2025.

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