October Tide: Rain Without End Review

Hello guys!

We’re now on the second leg of my music review tour, and I’m keeping the theme of artists I haven’t covered. The weather is rather bleak where I am right now, and what better way to keep that feeling of bleakness around that with one of the most soul-crushing albums I’ve ever listened to. Granted I find this album flawed, but there’s still good things here. With that said, let’s take a look at the first album of Katatonia’s side project, Rain Without End by October Tide, and see if it’s any good.

1997 Original Cover

2008 Re-Release Cover

Background
First formed in 1995 by Katatonia’s vocalist Jonas Renkse, and their at-the-time guitarist Fred Norman, October Tide continued the same death/doom metal tradition as the main band, Katatonia. Rain Without End, their first album, was released in 1997, and had a re-release on November 10, 2008. It should be noted that this is the only October Tide album to have Jonas Renkse on vocals. Their three subsequent albums had completely different singers, thus having completely different tonal changes.

Songs
12 Days of Rain (“***”): We begin this dreary album with, what else, more rain! 12 Days of Rain, to be exact. This song sound exactly like something you’d hear during a torrential downpour: slow & bleak instrumentation (Except for the end, when it picks up the pace), singing that sounds like thunder, and keyboarding that creates some very haunting sounds. This song is a great way to start off Rain Without End, but it also leads into the album’s main problem...

Ephemeral (“***”): You might recall from my Ozzmosis review from late April of last year (Click “***” to read it) that my problem with it was that because of using nothing but ballads, it all felt the same. While there aren’t any ballads on this album, there is a same-ness to all of the songs on here. True, the instruments are all played differently on each song, but the overall tone & feel is completely the same (If not, pretty damn close). With that said, the quality of Ephemeral isn’t bad at all. The instrumentation is nice, and Jonas Renkse’s singing still sounds kickass. I just wished that this song didn’t sound like all the others on here.

All Painted Cold (“***”): Okay, maybe there’s one song on here that’s a tiny bit different from the rest of the music on this album (With the exception of track number 5, which is considerably different, instead of being just a little different). All Painted Cold decides to do things in reverse, the beginning & middle have the instrumentation faster instead of slower, and Jonas’s singing starts fast instead of slow. I could do a joke where I say that All Painted Cold was played/sung in reverse, but I honestly can’t. It’s not a bad song, it really isn’t, but I wish that it didn’t sound like (Almost) everything else.

Sightless (“***”): Alright, maybe there’s more than one song that sounds a little different from everything else. In the case of Sightless, it’s a song that’s stuck right in the middle of two other tunes (Despite being after the two tunes in question). It seems to have the tone & feel of Ephemeral, while it has the speed & ability to change pace like All Painted Cold does. This creates a rather bipolar song, but at the same time doesn’t necessarily make it a confusing song to listen to.

Losing Tomorrow (“***”): If Losing Tomorrow wasn’t on this album, chances are I would have stopped listening. Coming in at a little over 2 & a half minutes (2 minutes & 35 seconds, to be specific), this song also sounds like it comes from a completely different album! With that said, Losing Tomorrow is incredibly chilling. Jonas Renkse has a very haunting voice, as it sounds like he’s singing from beyond the grave, and the instrumentation is a equally disturbing yet beautiful combination of soft drumming, keyboarding, and I believe there’s guitars in there as well. If you want your spine to tremble, listen to Losing Tomorrow in the dark.

Blue Gallery (“***”): Just like Sightless, Blue Gallery is another bipolar song. In this case, it has the slow moments of Losing Tomorrow, the speed changing capability of All Painted Cold, and Ephemeral’s atmosphere. As with Sightless, this makes for a confusing listening experience, but I don’t find this one as enjoyable.

Infinite Submission (“***”): Okay, alright, so there is another song on here that’s different from everything else besides Losing Tomorrow! Although the vocals are on part with just about the other songs, Infinite Submission is a very slow song most of the time. It never really speeds up except at key moments, and even then it doesn’t last long. This is a very sludgy song, and a bleak kind of sludge at that!

Overall Impression & Rating
Man, I’m so conflicted by this album!

On the one hand, I have the entirety of Rain Without End on my mp3 player, and I listen to it from time to time when the mood strikes me. Each of the songs have a great beat to them, and the overall quality is nice. My biggest problem is that all of the songs sound exactly the same. If Losing Tomorrow wasn’t on here, you’d swear that each of the other songs were just pieces of one whole song. Still, Rain Without End has some good music on it, and if you can get past the same-ness of it all, it can be rather enjoyable.

Rain Without End gets a 7 out of 10.

See you all next time, when we’ll all be under the thumb of the technodiktator. Until then, stay Otaku!



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Quick Tidbit: I’ll be posting up reviews starting the 1st of every month from now on (You may have noticed this trend started last month).