Katatonia: Viva Emptiness (half-speed master) [PEACEVILLE]

Why you'll love it

This edition presents the original 2003 mix with a 2025 half-speed master from Abbey Road Studios in London, plus a printed inner sleeve. Viva Emptiness is the Swedish band's hardest-hitting set of its era and the bridge to their later metal sound.

This edition

• Half-speed master
• Mastered at Abbey Road Studios
• Printed inner sleeve
• Limited edition
• Remastered

About the album

Katatonia went into Studios 301 in Stockholm in October 2002 with a plan to do everything themselves. Jonas Renkse and Anders Nyström produced, tuned their guitars down to C and brought in more keyboards than ever, and the band called the result by far the heaviest material they had written. More sessions followed at Studio Kulin B in Örebro.

It plays like a darker turn of the screw after the band's more melodic records. "Ghost of the Sun" opens with a crushing riff and became the promo single alongside "Criminals" and "Evidence," "Sleeper" and "Wealth" pair Renkse's soft, sorrowful vocals with grinding guitars, and "Walking by a Wire" and "Omerta" lean into atmosphere. The closing instrumental "Inside the City of Glass" drifts off like smoke. The mix was the first project in the long career of Jens Bogren, now one of metal's busiest producers.

Renkse later described it as a transitional record, the hinge between the band's poppier period and the heavier albums that followed. Everyone has to start somewhere, and Bogren started by mixing a Katatonia record, which is a bit like learning to drive in a hearse.

Also at Kops: more Katatonia on vinyl · browse Metal

Tracklist

Listen

On Peaceville (cat# VILELP1387), a reissue of the 2003 album.