Sweden's Katatonia has been blessed to release two excellent albums the past few years, Viva Emptiness and The Great Cold Distance are two albums that kind of "cut loose" with the bands doom metal style, and injected a bit more technical riffs, melodies and of course the excellent voice of Jonas Renske.

The track "July" comes from The Great Cold Distance and it is probably the most "Katatonia" track you can find on the album. It has an incredible strong chorus, and the guitar work definitely has a Tool-vibe going. But if you don't know the song or the band you should get their latest album anyways. On to the rest!

The remix of 'Soil's Song' is quite a good one, removing the heavy riffs and fusing some ambient sounds and beats resulting in quite a new song, but keeping the spotlight on Renske's great vocals. A good example of how a remix should be done.

The last track on this EP is the track "Unfurl" is a more trip-hop kind of affair that wouldn't have been out of place on the latest Porcupine Tree album. To be honest I would love a CD full of this kind of stuff, this might be one of the most 'relaxing' pieces of music I've heard this year. What's left is a video of "July", which is well made but not something you'll watch 400 times. I do want to point out to the artwork, Travis Smith did an awesome job on this one, really nailing the mood of the band.

So, is this EP worth getting? If you are a fan of the band, definitely. If you don't know Katatonia, this might be a low-budget way to get to know the band. It's a small testament of the musicality that these guys possess and worth getting. We don't score EPs on Metalrage, but this is a 90 out of 100.