City Burials

City Burials is the eleventh studio album by Swedish metal band Katatonia. The album continues the progressive rock direction used in recent albums while returning to some of their earlier metal instrumentation. Three singles were released in promotion of the album; “Lacquer“, “Behind the Blood“, and “The Winter of Our Passing“.

The album is their first in four years, since their 2016 album The Fall of Hearts, after entering a one-year hiatus in 2018. The band cited Öjersson being hospitalized by a serious back injury at the end of 2017, and a number of other undisclosed issues, for the band needing to take some time off and “re-evaluate what the future holds for the band.” In February 2019, the band announced their return, and a year later, they announced City Burials and released its first single “Lacquer”. 

Talking about the hiatus in an interview, vocalist Jonas Renkse explained: “We felt that we needed to recharge and get some perspective. Basically we did a lot of touring from previous albums and by the end of that, the last few gigs, I think we all felt that we were pretty sick of being away from home for such a long time. There were a lot of different reasons for doing this, but in the end, taking a few steps back to evaluate what you want to do next and have some time off is very healthy.”