On a casual browse of the site it was something of a shock to realise that we had never covered anything from Swedish goths Katatonia prior to 2001's Last Fair Deal Gone Down! They were an entirely different band in the early nineties to what they became later and as a fan (indeed, a critical fan of some of their latest works) it would be sheer madness not to appreciate what Katatonia were in their earliest days. The founding members were barely eighteen when Dance of December Souls, their debut, was released and you can hear this youthful enthusiasm clearly in this dark and romantic channelling of the emerging shape of extreme metal, alloyed here with a very apparent worship of The Cure. The duo of Anders Nyström and Jonas Renkse (then known as Blackheim and Lord J Renkse respectively) had a lot of talent from the start, plain from the sheer intensity of the despairing vocals and some of the most melancholic and gothic-laden guitar riffs around at the time. Joined by bassist Guillaume René Le Huche on bass and producer Dan Swanö (under the name of Day DiSyraah!) on keyboards and backing vocals, the foursome crafted a piece of vital art for those who love all things gloomy.

There's much to criticise about this album on first reactions, not least that truly terrible and dated cover art, the band members' heads emerging from pink clouds for some reason! In addition to which the music itself is sloppily-played and clumsy at points, particularly Renkse's drumming which even he would admit wasn't the most technical or trained. It's unique and interesting, however, and more than fitting the music, the beats hefty, forceful, and well-directed with a good supporting place in the mix. Swanö's production effort is solid but not his best work, something you can't say for his effective keyboard contributions here which are perfectly judged, giving the likes of Velvet Thorns an extra sheen of grandiosity. You can hear what the band would become multiple times, not least in the mournful melodies of even the likes of interlude Elohim Meth, post-black melodies in the Swedish school transposed into gothic meander, backed by sampled falling rain.

That sense of black or death metal comes through strongest from one of Renkse's few attempts at harsh vocals in his Katatonia career, something between a harsh snarl and a strained growl, and closer to Nödtveidt's fronting of Dissection than the more typical doom growl of the era. He truly pushes himself throughout, sounding especially unhinged on Without God and Tomb of Insomnia, the vocals limited to just a couple of places on the latter largely instrumental piece yet are particularly memorable when they are used. The music as a whole is closer to, say, early Opeth or Dark Tranquillity than the My Dying Bride that you may expect and there's even some Iron Maiden going on in In Silence Enshrined - hell, the faster parts of Velvet Thorns sound like Bathory!

And although not in the realm of, say, early At the Gates in terms of sheer experimental edge, there's still a grasp of melody and infectiousness present that catches the ear and promises even better to come as the band age. Yet Katatonia are already a compelling listen even at this stage. They may be about to change a lot in the years following this, but you can hear the band's grasp of melody and melancholy is already present and correct, not least in the riffs, and although it may not necessarily be the first album that you'd recommend a newcomer start with when it comes to Katatonia, it's undoubtedly a classic of its genre, mixing doom and death and even a little black metal to create something potent and powerful. Perhaps not a perfect album - the clumsiness, the heaviness, the fact the band placed two thirteen-minute minute songs next to each other...! Yet there are no bad songs, and as a first album it's a masterpiece, well worth its place in underground metallic history, not to mention in your collection.