Katatonia

With its rumbling bass and melancholy melodies, Night is the New Day opens like an expected answer, following Katatonia's last few records with more of the same. For the most part, the moody Swedes stick to this basic familiar pattern: groove-heavy rhythm section as anchor, the rest of the band free to drift in layers and currents of unsettled sound. Night is the New Day features dark aggression at its core, swimming in ambience and post-rock atmospheres ― no major surprises. But their latest album also pushes this structure further into uncharted territory, and it's the post-rock drifting that gets the most freedom to explore, dabbling in goth-tinged weirdness and prog-ish complexity. Each song stretches the formula a little more, until by the end this is a Katatonia that, every now and then, are not so easy to anticipate or recognize. And these moments, where the band's extreme roots are hardest to hear, are what make Night is the New Day worth listening to again (and again).