Review by Ben for Katatonia - Saw You Drown (1998)

A brave evolutionary step for Katatonia where they dropped the death doom while retaining the despondent tone.

To this point, it appeared that Katatonia were going to release a stop-gap EP between every full-length album. Given that they’d already followed up the wonderful Brave Murder Day album with the Sounds of Decay EP in 1997, I was eagerly anticipating a new full-length death doom metal album when the band threw an unexpected curve ball, in more ways than one. As if yet another EP less than a month after the last one wasn’t surprising, the content of this one was enough to drain the blood from my face! How could the band change so much so quickly, and had one of my favourite bands just alienated me altogether? In hindsight I shouldn’t really have been so shocked. Their evolution had already been underway for a couple of years with Brave Murder Day having a vastly different sound to Dance of December Souls. More significantly, when you consider that Renkse and Blackheim had already temporarily ended the band in 1995 due to indecision about what direction to take in the future, combined with some experimental tracks being recorded such as the gothic rock track Scarlet Heavens (originally released on the Katatonia/Primordial split) and the depressive piece Day found on Brave Murder Day, it’s not hard to see that these Swedes just weren’t going to stay entrenched in death doom metal forever.

The changes between Sounds of Decay and Saw You Drown are numerous to say the least. There were some aesthetic alterations that suggested a change in direction for the band, with the most obvious being a new logo. While the new one was still arguably metal in tone, it was less extreme than the original that contained a pentagram and devil’s tails. Drummer Jonas Renkse had already dropped his pseudonym (Lord Seth) a couple of releases ago, but now guitarist Blackheim followed suit and would go by his real name Anders Nyström from this point onwards, once again suggesting that Katatonia were attempting to distance themselves from the death and black metal elements that were present on earlier works. If these minor changes suggest a transformation in sound, the modified line-up all but confirmed it. With the band wanting a full line-up that they could take on tour, Mikael Oretoft was hired as a bassist after Anders had filled that role on the previous album. The biggest news however was that Mikael Åkerfeldt, the vocalist from Opeth, would no longer add his death growls and that after two years away from the microphone, Renkse would take up vocals once again. Considering he originally gave up the vocal role due to the damage his harsh style was doing to his throat, it could only mean that Katatonia intended to leave the growls behind for good.

My first listen to Saw You Drown was not a particularly pleasant one. I struggled so much to get past the shift in style and the disappointment that came with my expectations not being met. I didn’t sulk for too long however, and slowly but surely these new tracks started to make an impression. I soon realised that this new Katatonia may have dropped the death growls and a few levels of intensity, but the depressive tone was as present as ever. In fact, Renkse’s dreary vocal delivery and the more plodding nature of the percussion if anything took their sound to a whole new level of sorrow and despair. Any concern regarding Renkse’s vocal abilities was quickly nullified by the brilliant Saw You Drown and Nerve, on which he displays unexpected ability and total emotional conviction to go along with Nyström’s subtle yet moving melodies. Quiet World is a nice change of pace, offering soothing, tender verses before the chorus soars to such heights, that any doubts I had previously about the new direction were washed away forever. Not even the overlong yet still mildly enjoyable Scarlet Heavens could convince me otherwise and I found myself filled with hope where before there was none. Saw You Drown was a valuable lesson and one that prepared me nicely for the approaching Discouraged Ones album. I’ve never doubted Katatonia since!