Finland's Swallow the Sun has posted a few clips from their forthcoming album: http://www.070207.com/site/audio.php
Recommended for fans of Katatonia and the like.

MP3: Katatonia - O how I enjoy the light

It was pretty exciting to see Katatonia for the first time last night in Seattle. Not only have they been one of my long-time most favorite bands, but they've also introduced me to tons of new music through the recommended listening lists they used to post on their website. Paatos, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, Ben Christophers, 16 Horsepower... I could go on and on. Yes, the irony of a Swedish band introducing me to American music has been sorely noted. So while I was greatly looking forward to the show, I was also skeptical as I've heard plenty of bad things about their live show. Even the band themselves admitted that their initial US debut at Milwaukee Metalfest some years back was a disaster and best left forgotten. Good news: my fears were laid to rest as Katatonia proved themselves to be plenty capable of delivering a solid performance with a good balance between old and new material (and to all your kvlt old-school fans: no, they did not play anything pre-"Discouraged ones"). They also graciously avoided common live metal clichés, such as always referring to the audience by the name of the city ("Hello Seattle!") and announcing songs in the metal voice ("This next one is called grrgsdlgjsgdsg!"). While all that's fine and good every so often, it gets old pretty damn fast. While there's still definitely room for improvement, I still left happy and felt fulfilled. As for today's download, instead of offering up one of the band's many would-be hits, I'm throwing a bone to you indie rockers with a Will Oldham cover. Enjoy!

Katatonia - O how I enjoy the light

Video mix: Katatonia, Nikola Sarcevic, Munck//Johnson, Frida Hyvönen, Thomas Dybdahl, more...

Music (for Robots) on Katatonia: http://music.for-robots.com/archives/001677.html
I too am really looking forward to finally seeing them live for the first time.

DigitalMetal has the press release for the new album "Hope" from Finnish doom-metallers Swallow the Sun: http://www.digitalmetal.com/news.asp?cid=7781
It comes out February 7 via Spinefarm and will feature guest appearances from Jonas Renkse (Katatonia) and Tomi Joutsen (Amorphis).

I last mentioned back in January 2005, but it seems that the long-promised Katatonia tribute "December songs" to be released by German label Northern Silence will finally happen. Seventeen bands, eighteen songs, all concentrating on the band's earlier mid-90s era music plus cover art by the famed Kristian 'Necrolord' Wahlin, due out December 12 in both 2xCD and 2xLP gatefold format. Full tracklist and details here: http://www.northern-silence.de/files/katatonia_tribute.htm

Peaceville has bought up the rights for all of Katatonia's back-catalogue from Avantgarde Music and will be reissuing all of the full-lengths in fancy digipacks with revamped artwork and new liner notes. First up will be the very doomy "Brave murder day" in October which will also include "Sounds of decay" as a bonus track. Peaceville also secured the rights for various old Katatonia sideprojects such as Diabolical Masquerade and October Tide and will be doing reissues of those as well. Personally, I'm just excited that I'll finally get a chance to see them live when they tour the US this fall for the first time ever.

Katatonia will finally be doing a full US tour this fall with Moonspell and Daylight Dies. Dates so far:

10/20 - The Loft, Poughkeepsie, NY
10/21 - Mark's Place, Manchester, NH
10/22 - BB Kings Blues Club, New York, NY
10/23 - Medley, Montreal, QUE
10/24 - L'Imperial, Quebec City, QUE
10/25 - Opera House, Toronto, ONT
10/26 - Peabody's, Cleveland, OH
10/27 - IRock, Detroit, MI
10/28 - Pearl Room, Mokena, IL
10/29 - Star Central, Columbia Heights, MN
10/31 - Lliff Park Saloon, Aurora, CO
11/02 - Studio Seven, Seattle, WA
11/03 - Rock N Roll Pizza, Portland, OR
11/04 - The Pound, San Francisco, CA
11/06 - House of Blues, Anaheim, CA
11/11 - White Rabbit, San Antonio, TX

Finnish act Day Eleven will recordtheir second album at Fascination Street Studios in Sweden starting in late Augst. Jens Bogren (Katatonia, Opeth, Disco Ensemble) will produce with Miitri Aaltonen (Stam1na, Mokoma) assisting.

The video for Katatonia's latest single "Deliberation" is now online: http://youtube.com/watch?v=7z1lntprsUw

Aversionline expresses their love for Katatonia: http://www.aversionline.com/blahg/2006/04/great-cold-best-fucking-band-on-planet.html

PopMatters on the new Katatonia: http://www.popmatters.com/pm/music/reviews/katatonia_the_great_cold_distance/

Stylus on the new Katatonia: http://www.stylusmagazine.com/review.php?ID=3943

DigitalMetal interviews Katatonia: http://www.digitalmetal.com/interviews.asp?iID=7231

"Deliberation" has been chosen as the second single from Katatonia's new album "The great cold distance". It will be officially released on May 15 and will include two exclusive tracks. The first is a stripped-down acoustic version of the song "In the white" and the second is an unreleased track from the "Cold distance" sessions entitled "Code against the code".