Sky Void of Stars is the twelfth studio album by Swedish rock band Katatonia. It was released on 20 January 2023 and was generally well received by critics. Background In April 2020, Katatonia released their eleventh studio album, City Burials. The band had initially planned on touring in support of the album, but the breakout of the COVID-19 pandemic halted all plans. Upon realizing that this was not a short-term issue, but something that was going to be completely halting their ability to tour, they instead turned to releasing further music. These plans including releasing a new live album Dead Air (2020), a compilation album Mnemosynean (2021) a box set Melancholium (2022), and forging ahead into writing and recording a twelfth studio album. Writing and recording Work on the album started shortly after the April 2020 release of City Burials. While most Katatonia albums were written as a collaboration between vocalist Jonas Renkse and Anders Nyström, the album, like its predecessor, was written entirely by Renkse. The album is not directly about the COVID pandemic, but rather, the writing sessions acted as a sort of therapy to help Renkse maintain his mental health while living through it. The album's title, Sky Void of Stars, alludes to the centuries old concept that travelers sailing ocean couldn't travel when there aren't any stars lighting the sky and environment; a metaphor of sorts to how they felt "frozen" and "crippled" as a band with an unclear path forward while enduring the COVID pandemic. The title is taken from the lyrics of the track "Author". The song "Colossal Shade" was inspired by Lick It Up-era of music from the band Kiss; the track was an effort to implement guitar riffs like those found on the respective Kiss album and mold them into Katatonia's own sound. The track "Opaline" was similarly influenced by the music of the Swedish pop rock band Kent in an effort to meld their sound into Katatonia's sound. The main guitar riff for the track "Birds" was originally rejected by Renkse for too closely resembling something from the death metal band Paradise Lost, but he later reversed the decision, feeling it was appropriate to use as a bit of a homage to the band. Joel Ekelof of the Swedish progressive metal band Soen recorded vocals for the song "Impermanence. Ekelof and Renkse has intended to collaborate for quite some time, but