KATATONIA Hard At Work On New Material

Anders "Blakkheim" Nyström of the Swedish metal band KATATONIA has issued the following update:

"We can hear many questions…. 'Why is there no new KATATONIA album out by now???' And you might rightfully think so, our eighth album (and the last in the contract with Peaceville) should have been done and put out 'ages ago' if things would've gone according to plan… It's crazy how fast time goes by these days and that doesn't help us much when inspiration runs dry. We've been meaning to enter the studio on many occasions already since two years back and I think we ended up cancelling booked sessions twice. Although it worked successfully every time in the past, it just got us stressed out and pushed us into a phase of writer's block. From this we learned we better not book anything in advance as it stands, but focus on completing 100% of the material, be perfectly happy with what we got and first then hit the studio.

"It seems we might pull things together for maximum devotion this time as all current and previous distractions are now gone. The summer festivals are over and the level of live gigs for the next months are put to a minimum and BLOODBATH — our death metal side-project's new album is done too (to be released on October 6th; check it out or all our hard work was for nothing, hah!).

"So what about the music? Bits and pieces have been collected ever since 'The Great Cold Distance' came out. It's just that we've been trying too hard, been thinking too much about the sound and direction. How can we top this and how can we change that. We've been stumbling around off-road looking for the answers and it ended up being a long walk. We don't find it meaningful to trace your own footsteps back from where you came, but we rather find the first nearest exit to the same road up ahead where we're at to get back on the map again.

"I won't give away any hints just yet about how it will sound, but we hope to give you more light on the progress of this untitled embryo as we get closer. What's certain is that we've found a good equation to work with now and that my friends is that it's all about the eighth studio album and the autumn. Here comes the KATATONIA season…"

A three-minute video interview with KATATONIA conducted by Metalhead TV in June at the Hellfest in Clisson, France can be viewed below. Performance footage of KATATONIA at Hellfest is available at MetalheadTV.com.

KATATONIA's live performance from 2006's Summer Breeze open-air festival in Germany was released as a double-disc live album/DVD, entitled "Live Consternation". The "super jewelcase" packaging features both the audio on CD and the show on DVD (including both 2.0 and 5.1 versions). The artwork was once again designed by Travis Smith and closes the visual concept for "The Great Cold Distance" phase.

KATATONIA's video for the song "July", shot and directed by Charlie Granberg, can be viewed on YouTube.