October Tide – Winged Waltz (2016)

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The superbly consistent October Tide return with their latest effort “Winged Waltz”, and they will surely please all their Melodic Death/Doom Metal fans with this one. Featuring eight tracks and over 50 minutes of music, this release only increases the band’s legendary status in the genre and proves they can release very similarly sounding albums that are still engaging and very entertaining.

Since returning in 2009, Fredrik Norrman and company has managed to record an album every three years. Perfectly continuing the early Katatonia sound into the trademark October Tide style, the band’s musical strengths lie in their uncanny abilities to deliver perfectly paced melodic songs filled with emotions. After opening with the powerful “Swarm”, the band really steps it up with the very melancholic “Sleepless Sun” and its superbly crafted guitar work.

The early Katatnonia influences are one of the reasons many people gravitate towards this band, and they are as good as ever on songs like “A Question Ignite” and “Lost in Rapture”. The band’s growler Alexander Högbom does a great job in deliver the right amount of raspiness on his growls to match the style. Never settling, the band crafts tracks that feature a few interesting elements that break up some of the monotony and add depth to their music, like on our personal favorite song “Nursed By The Cold” and its playful guitar work.

Slowly crushing the listener with the Doomy closer “Coffins of November”, we are left quite impressed with “Winged Waltz”. The band sticks to their signature style and only fine-tunes small things here and there to make this release more engaging and a near perfect Melodic Death/Doom Metal album. If you like any of their earlier work, or bands like Katatonia (old), Forest of Shadows, Rapture, etc., then you should definitely not miss this excellent release.

Band: October Tide Album: Winged Waltz

Label: Agonia Records

Release: April 22nd, 2016

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Genre: Melodic Death/Doom Metal

Country: Sweden

Rating: 90/100
Year: 

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