Katatonia (www.myspace.com/katatonia) is a band that defines the new wave of Swedish metal. Their heavy overtones, combined with haunting, melodic waves of sound, are a perfect mix of doom metal and modern rock. Katatonia’s earlier albums, Dance of December Souls and Brave Murder Day, focused more on traditional Swedish doom; meanwhile, their first crossover CD, Discouraged Ones, and the recent Night Is the New Day, gravitate to more of a modern style with symphonic synths and heavy, low-tuned guitars.
Since Katatonia covers many different styles of music, it is important for guitarist Anders Nystrom to have a wide variety of tones at his fingertips. Pickup-wise, his new signature Mayones guitars will have AHB-1 Blackouts active pickups, high-outputTB-6 Duncan Distortion trembuckers, tremendously versatile SHPR-1b P-Rails,
and smooth and fat SCR-1n Cool Rails to help him get the dirtiest of the dirty and the cleanest of the clean.

Here’s why Anders chose Seymour Duncan: “I wanted the best, and I got the best! With Seymour Duncan’s top-of-the-line arsenal of both active and passive pickups — and even the inventive humbucker/single-coil hybrids in between — I have finally found the perfect configuration for my guitars to go from a loud, fierce bite to a mellow, warm sparkle in the blink of an eye. I’m thrilled to have these pickups installed to deliver my ultimate tone! Thank you Seymour Duncan!”
Celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, Katatonia is playing a few special anniversary gigs in Europe this May, presented as the 2011 ‘Last Fair Day Gone Night – An Evening With Katatonia’ tour. The London show will be shot for a DVD, to be released autumn 2011. There will be a big prize pot for all VIP ticket holders to win very special gear and exclusive items. This year will also see the band tour South and North America as well as selected summer festivals, while they keep writing material for their 9th album. Head over to www.katatonia.com to keep up with all the latest news.