Katatonia – Nightmares as Extensions of the Waking State Review

By Dolphin Whisperer

Sixteen years is all Jonas Renkse had to his name when he and Anders Nyström formed Katatonia back in 1991. A myriad of classic influences and the bravado of youth guided their fledgling minds down much rawer, doomier, and death-colored paths than Katatonia travels in 2025. But after thirty-plus years on the job—and a messy spat between old friends—nothing could possibly stay the same. The urge to find efficiencies in expression may overcome the urge to blaze an unknown path or revisit roots. What always remains in the Katatonia expression, though, is an unshakable and downtrodden atmosphere—time hasn’t rid the remaining Renkse of a bleak outlook on the world. So even if times are different, Nightmares as Extensions of Waking State remains, as always, a sad, Swedish affair.

Freshly onboarded axeslingers Nico Elgstrand (ex-Entombed A.D.) and Sebastian Svalland (Letters from the Colony, ex-In Mourning) harbor a burly guitar edge that’s a pleasure to hear—in vicious solo (and oh what solos!) or thunderous riff. And continuing the same stadium-minded attitude that pervaded every chorus of 2023’s Sky Void of Stars, booming builds and sticky-smooth serenading coat just about every nook of Nightmares. None of this rings that new for Katatonia, of course—2009’s Night Is the New Day cemented this lane of stream-of-conscious verse work that bubbles and broods to a Renkse-helmed croonfest. And since 2016’s iconic The Fall of Hearts idealized the mesmerizing rhythms and nature-fueled ambiance that serve modern Katatonia best, subsequent releases have strayed too wandering in electronica or comforting in safe songcraft to stand up against a loaded catalog. But the new blood and immediate stance in attack gives Nightmares a fighting chance in memory.

Given that Renkse has been the majority songwriting stakeholder over the past fifteen years, familiarity plays a hefty role in both the draw towards and push away from Nightmares. Yet, ever seasoned in crafting slinky vocal hooks, Renkse peppers lyrical spats like “Assemble a temple of steel / To stand on top of that building” (“Wind of No Change”) and “I wait for falling snow [dramatic shuffling break] You wait for me to go away” (“The Light Which I Bleed”). These goth night beat poetics add welcome color to melodic backdrops that sound like so many that have come before them. Does “Warden” waltz along that buttery line more like “Ambitions” or “Rusted” or “The Longest Year”—you decide. But against the locked-in, tom pounding struts (“The Liquid Eye”) and bouncing wah-chord hypnosis (“The Light…”), Katatonia possesses all the necessary parts to rope in prospective sadpeople looking to sway and bob in well-toned melancholy.

While cozy, crunchy riffs can go a long way in keeping Nightmares above water, its patchwork, song-based construction gets in the way of easy, straight-through enjoyment. From the get-go, the transition from a straightforward churner (“Thrice”) to a classic Renkse whimsical lilt (“The Liquid Eye”) to a sure-to-be arena staple (“Wind…”) feels like a stuttered exposition rather than a shared experience. And later, Renkse pulls out a Eurovision-ready, dim lights, full Swedish language synth pop ballad in “Efter Solen,” which struggles to justify its cost of admission as the longest, slowest, and guitar-void track on Nightmares. With as fragile a voice as ever in his native language, though, it’s hard to discount its charm, and repeated listens (as often is the case with a Katatonia) see it flowing better through my ears and heart. However, after the long fadeout of “The Light…” and before the radical, creaking blues pick-me-up of “In the Event of,” “Efter Solen” still feels as though it could have fit better as a separate bonus track.

Alas, at forty-six minutes composed of quality songs, Nightmares as Extensions of Waking State pushes through its lesser attributes as another Katatonia album with plenty of room to grow and revisit. In the hands of the hard-working engineering duo of Adam Noble and Robin Schmidt, who have most notably tackled the past few Leprous releases, Nightmares shows a contemporary gloss with an amplified edge while maintaining a wobbly buzz and pop in the additional electronics. Whether it’s the exact order or the songs themselves, this newest Katatonia outing stands in the shadow of any number of albums that someone calls their favorite—and a true favorite Nightmares is not likely to be. As an iterative entity that has lived rather well in its late stages, though, Katatonia holds the power to shine brighter with these same parts, even if this arrangement is plenty fine on its own.

Rating: Good.
DR: N/A | Format Reviewed: Sadboi Stream
Label: Napalm Records
Websites: katatonia.com | katatonia.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/katatonia
Releases Worldwide: June 6th, 2025

#2025 #30 #AlternativeRock #GothicMetal #Jun25 #Katatonia #Leprous #NapalmRecords #NightmaresAsExtensionsOfWakingState #ProgressiveMetal #ProgressiveRock #Review #Reviews #SwedishMetal

Benthos – From Nothing Review

By Dear Hollow

It’s sexy when things you love collide with things you hate. My lust for mathcore is well-established – I go hard for that mind-numbing dyscalculic tinnitus any day – but if you put a slab of prog metal in front of me, I’m gonna go as flaccid as a gummy worm in a hot car faster than you can say “Wilderun.” That’s Benthos. The Italian collective slides a platter of progressive rock’s lush, ambivalent, and emotive movements alongside mathcore’s jagged edges and feral energy, and you’re guaranteed to find something you’ll love and hate – and get hot and bothered by. It’s core’s sellout and prog’s elitism personified in the dichotomy of the heavenly and hellish – yet in your divinely appointed and coarsely deadly free will, you decide which is which. In the words of the wisest, “yeet and yoink” with this particular Haken-themed hatefuck.

Benthos has been around since 2018, and gained recognition in their hometown of Milan by opening for The Contortionist and appearing in the Dissonance Festival in 2023. From Nothing is their debut full-length, although they released the ironically titled EP/mini-album II in 2021. Settled upon a foundation of lush melodies and evasive chord progressions before exploding into frantic Dillinger-inspired rhythm abuse, the act wavers between super serious and frantically silly, soulful cleans colliding haphazardly with demonic shrieks. From Nothing is ambitious in fusing two styles strangely congruous but also not at all, but in the end Benthos is exactly split down the middle, its arrhythmic beatdowns stealing the spotlight from masturbatory prog sections, blurring into some ambivalently erotic background.

First glances of Benthos are synth-heavy progressions and killer vocals. Gabriele Landillo has a formidable set of pipes, their post-hardcore-meets-Chino Moreno vibe lending a creeping sexiness (“Let Me Plunge,” “The Giant Child”) and a desperate belt that adds serious dynamic and show-stealing propensity (“From Nothing,” “Pure”), keeping the more uninteresting passages from descending into drearier monotony. Without careful listening, however, the proggier tracks blur together in a blurry pastel mesh in sprawling layered atmospheric rock tricks – serious synth on guitar action – with interspersed chuggy portions, feeling like a less nuanced songwriting a la (recent) The Contortionist or The Fall of Troy. Speaking of your favorite dark romance crooner Chino, From Nothing feels quite a bit like Deftones’ Gore in its decision to put include metal as a mere monument marker on the jaded journey to the pits of prog – ultimately, a bit of a cockblock. Benthos mixing is likewise stellar, Alberto Fiorani’s dummy thicc bass as audible as the cheek-clapping guitars and slamming drums.

Of its two audio halves, Benthos’ more chaotic mathcore attacks offer the best listening experience. After the vastly longwinded four-song introductory blur, the intro to “As a Cordyceps” introduces what makes From Nothing worth a bit more. Practically brimming with energy, the mathcore technicality and hardcore intensity finally kick in. This continues into the easy highlights that dispense the prog fluff into something that feels cutthroat and quirky, wonky leads weaponized with nimble and mind-bending rhythms (“Fossil,” “Athletic Worms,” “Perpetual Drone Monkeys”). These give Benthos more breathing room when the proggy sensibilities raise their ill-smelling feet, offering nuance to otherwise unwelcoming rooms. These also incorporate more of these chunkier vibes into more mundane moments, letting the rhythms inject a tasteful – albeit short-lived – dose of intensity (“The Giant Child,” “Pure”).

The best and worst part about From Nothing is that Benthos manages to sound both bored to tears and absolutely apeshit depending on which part you tune into. Its moments of unhinged insanity are too few and far between to warrant consistency or balance… or a solid recommendation. But if you’re like Dolphin Whisperer and like your music hot and heavy, while disrobing From Nothing’s many sexy layers and textured sprawls, take a cold shower before venturing out to pick up a copy.1 Benthos offers promise with the softness for the foreplay and the vigor for the penetration, but From Nothing has difficulty keeping it up across its forty-five minute runtime with too-long portions of pretty monotony2 and excessive indulgence,3 but armed with a vocalist both sexy and devastating and an instrumental presence as bonkers as it is patient… goddammit, I need a cold shower now.4

Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Inside Out Music
Websites: benthosmusic.bandcamp.com | benthos-band.com | facebook.com/benthosbandofficial
Releases Worldwide: April 11th, 2025

#25 #2025 #Apr25 #Benthos #Deftones #FromNothing #Haken #InsideOutMusic #ItalianMetal #Mathcore #ProgressiveMetal #ProgressiveRock #Review #Reviews #TheContortionist #TheDillingerEscapePlan #TheFallOfTroy #Wilderun