Style: Doom/death
Primary Emotions/Themes: What would have happened if Katatonia had stayed extreme metal?
Thoughts: Discouraged Ones was a defining moment for Katatonia. It set them on a path that would define the rest of their career, further and further away from their extreme metal roots. It was with that album that they finally turned the corner, dropped the growls and to a large extent the metal and decided that forge a new path. But what if they never strayed? What if they went further down the extreme path? Well that's the question that October Tide asked.
Rain Without End is a special album in October Tide's discography. Not only do we have the one mainstay of the project, Fredrick Norrman, we have the one and only Jonas Renkse on drums and vocals. This is essentially Ktatonia without Anders (which is another level of irony considering Anders just left Katatonia).
So outside of the obvious Katatonia comparisons, what is Rain Without End all about? Well to put is simply, it's melodic/doom death that evolves the style of Brave Murder Day further. Instead of repeating the same thing over the course of long form songs, these songs are shorter and involve more riffs. That said, they still have the main backbeat on the drums giving them that same hypnotic sway that the songs off the previous album had.
Where the band further evolves is through the use of melody. These songs incorporate more intricate and frankly more memorable moments through the use of both delayed guitars, well thought out leads, and various other instruments such as sparse keyboards and acoustic guitars. The real treat here though are the vocals.
This is perhaps the last full album that I ever heard Jonas growl on. He's got a deep and longing harsh voice that he uses throughout the entirety of Rain Without End. It's exactly what I wanted from him, and this would be the last moment in time that I would ever get it. Outside of a few moment in an Ayreon album Jonas would never use harsh vocals again to my knowledge. This is the true reason why this album means so much to me.
October Tide would go on to have a long and storied career with Fredrick taking over the project after he left Katatonia. The albums after Jonas' departure are of various quality, but it's here at the very beginning where I got what I truly wanted from the band: the extreme continuation of one of the finest bands in the 1990's.
