Style: Melodic death/doom metal
Primary Emotions/Themes: Despair, isolation, anger, frustration
Thoughts: When Fredrick Norrman left Katatonia I was curious what he would end up doing. I did not anticipate that he would revive the old doom/death band October Tide as his new full time project.
The first October Tide album - Rain Without End - is a classic in the doom/death genre. It's atmospheric, it's ominous, and it's exceptionally well written. I remember Jonas Renkse saying that this is the direction Katatonia would have gone if they had not changed styles. I think that is a fair estimation of the sound.
Post reunion October Tide is sans Jonas. Without his involvement some of the magic of that first album is gone. The post reunion albums are excellent in their own rite, but lack just that edge that the debut had.
Winged Waltz is the third post reunion album and sees the band in a sort of transition period. The Thin Shell and Tunnel of No Light both continue right where the first two albums left off. This one sees the band beginning to branch out a bit from that earlier sound.
October Tide have always been a delicate balance of melody, despair, and excellent riffs. On Winged Waltz the band adds in a few new elements into their sound: the riffs have become heavier, the atmosphere is lonelier and a bit progressive leanings in the song writing.
At first I didn't care for the album. Like many other records in my collection, I've come to enjoy this one over time. There are small moments in the album where the song writing threw me off. A chord progression that will all the sudden go chromatic. A riff that sounds slightly off time. A seemingly awkward transition. All these things come unexpectedly at first and initially threw me out of the rhythm of the album. Over time I've come to accept this as part of the bands current sound and let the album flow as it will.
When the band is not noodling in the progressive realm this is vintage October Tide. The riffs have an incredibly lonely feeling to them. The lead guitar in particular will play a few slow notes and then be allowed to fade into nothingness. It's written like a call and response riff - but there is no response. There is only the searching for something that will never reply back. It's brilliant.
Winged Waltz was an album I was pretty unsure about when I first put it on. Was this slight shift in direction a good thing? I don't know if I have the answer to that. What I do know is that the end result - while a bit difficult to get into at first - is an album that I've come around to and one that I intend to spin more often.
Written January 29th 2024
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