Not many bands have succeeded in drastically changing their style while keeping their quality- and fans. For some reason, Katatonia is one these few bands that managed to do that, which is surely due to their fascinating melancholic sound. At the beginning of this year, they released their latest work “The Great Cold Distance” and went on tour to promote the album. Since they haven’t been to Germany for almost three years except for some rare festival appearances, I had to make sure to see them live. The venue “Zeche Karl” that they played at used to be a factory building and is situated near a park so when I arrived I stumbled on about 50 people that were sitting around and seizing the nice spring weather, so perfect conditions for a good evening.

An hour later, the venue was slowly filling up with people, some hurried to get some good spots on the gallery while others made sure to save their spots in the front row. I myself took a spot on the very left side on an extended part of the stage where I could sit down and watch the support act Novembre. At around 8.30 an intro announced them, the four guys hit the stage, the intro faded and everyone (or at least those who didn’t know them) was expecting them to start rocking… but nothing really happened and they started with a ballad instead. Well ok, that’s something different for a start. At least they fitted perfectly to Katatonia. The third song was finally some heavier material which raised a smile on my face. Despite the very melancholic songs they played there was some very agile stage acting, especially by their bassist, who made it very hard for those who wanted a decent picture. Well overall, Novembre were just a bit too mellow and melancholic for me and surely for some others too as I couldn’t really see much excitement in the crowd. Nonetheless, the band gave a good performance.

While the stage was set up for Katatonia, the venue was finally getting crowded (I guess many people had still been sitting outside during Novembre’s performance) so that approximately 300 people were present now. Pretty good for a Thursday night don’t you think? The five Swedes were enthusiastically welcomed by the crowd when they finally started their set with “Leaders”, the opener of the current album. The girls in the front row seemed to watch every single movement on stage while the guys in the crowd greeted the band with some headbanging. Jonas’ voice sounded even more intense live than on CD and he gave a perfect performance. Occasionally, he made some short announcements in between the songs but seemed very shy for a front man overall. In fact, he was hiding his face behind his hair all the time which made me wonder if he was really comfortable being on stage. No one seemed to mind though and you could hear some very enthusiastic fans screaming out stuff like “I so love this band!” now and then. Yes, we love them, too. Speaking of stage performance, guitarist Anders and bassist Mattias we’re definitely making up for Jonas’ static appearance. They used the small space on stage perfectly and interacted very well with each other, which made it very fun to take pictures of them. Of course, the show ended way too soon but to my surprise Katatonia played “Murder” as the ultimate encore, which was by far the heaviest song of the set. I have to say that I was quite astonished seeing Jonas do some growling, which he can definitely pull off. To make this short, Katatonia sound a lot heavier live than on their records so -if you haven’t already- give them a try next time they are around.

Set list:

Leaders
Wealth 
Soil’s Song
Deadhouse
Teargas
Sweet Nurse
Deliberation
Ghost
My Twin
Criminals
Future of Speech
Tonight’s Music
For My Dreams
Sleeper

Encore:
July
In the White
Evidence
Murder