Katana is a
heavy metal band from
Gothenburg
Gothenburg (; abbreviated Gbg; sv, Göteborg ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, and capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by the Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, and has ...
,
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
established in 2005. The 5-member includes Johan Bernspång on vocals, Patrik Essén (guitar), Susanna Salminen (bass guitar), Tobias Karlsson (guitar) and Anders Persson (drums). The name of the band Katana comes from Japanese
katana
A is a Japanese sword characterized by a curved, single-edged blade with a circular or squared guard and long grip to accommodate two hands. Developed later than the ''tachi'', it was used by samurai in feudal Japan and worn with the edge fa ...
, a backsword, because of Japanese influences on the band's music. They were signed with Listenable Records / Sony Music and managed by Gain / Magnus Lundbäck.
Background and career
The group has been known as a member of the NWOSHM (New Wave of Swedish Heavy Metal). Both the title itself and the overall sound represented by it is akin to the previous NWOBHM (New Wave of British Heavy Metal).
The band earned the runner up status for the title in the Wacken Metal Battle in 2010.
Katana's debut album, titled ''Heads Will Roll'', came out on January 28, 2011.
Released by
Listenable Records,
it was
produced
Producer or producers may refer to:
Occupations
*Producer (agriculture), a farm operator
*A stakeholder of economic production
*Film producer, supervises the making of films
**Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...
by the band itself along with Andy LaRocque,
an
audio engineer
An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization, dynamics processing and audio effects, mixing, reproduction, ...
and musician who had previously produced bands such as
Dragonland,
Lord Belial
Lord Belial is a Swedish black metal band.
History
The band formed in 1992 and released their debut album in 1995; placing them among the pioneers of Swedish black metal. Their sound has been compared with bands such as Dissection. In January ...
, and
Sacramentum.
Sophomore release ''Storms of War'' came out on May 14, 2012. It was also released by Listenable Records.
On June 10, 2013, the group released a
music video
A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...
for the track "Yakuza", the visuals mixing a performance by the band with depictions of
organized crime
Organized crime (or organised crime) is a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally th ...
in action.
[Archived a]
Ghostarchive
and th
Wayback Machine
After being dropped from their label, the band
independently distributed the album ''The Greatest Victory''.
Discography
Albums
EPs
*2004: ''Blindfoldead''
*2005: ''Night Avengers''
*2006: ''Heart of Tokyo''
Singles
*2008: ''Rock 'N' Roll Disaster''
*2011: "Heart of Tokyo" (rerelease)
References
External links
Myspace
{{DEFAULTSORT:Katana
Swedish rock music groups
Swedish heavy metal musical groups