October Tide is actually nothing more than two Katatonia members taking a little detour back into their past. Jonas Renske and Fredrik Norman make up October Tide and it would appear Grey Dawn is nothing more than revisiting their roots as a harsher doom metal bands. If you take out Blackheim's distinctive riffing style and allow Norman and Renske to create their own mode of melodic leads and melancholy riffs, as well as add in older Katatonia styled raspy vocals (courtesy of session vocalist Marten Hansen), you get a very morose sound that does remind one of older Katatonia quite a bit. Fans of the older style will be sure to enjoy Grey Dawn immensely. Even without the signature Blackheim style, October Tide is chock full of strong music and guitar playing. The songs have similar structure, with softer musical breaks adjunct to the heavier doom core.

Although there is a tendency for October Tide to almost be redundant of earlier Katatonia, the band does this style so well that Grey Dawn would be a logical followup for Brave Murder Day had the band not decided to explore the clean vocals approach of Discouraged Ones. Grey Dawn is a very solid album that reminds me why good doom metal is such a wonderful thing.

Review by John Chedsey

Review date: 09/2000

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