October Tide had lurked for a few years as a promising side project of Katatonia’s Jonas Renske and Fredrik Norrman before folding after 1999’s Grey Dawn and fading into relative obscurity. Now after eleven years, they’ve surprisingly re-emerged with a completely revamped line-up, Norrman being the only remaining original member. The band has recruited In Mourning’s Tobias Netzell as a new vocalist, and fans of Renske’s delivery on the debut Rain Without End will undoubtedly be pleased with his performance. October Tide’s newest offering A Thin Shell still carries some vestiges of early Katatonia’s sound among its textures and melodies, but the album is good enough to propel these guys out of Katatonia’s shadow and hopefully earn them respect as an excellent doom band in their own right.

This band has always been strong musically, and A Thin Shell certainly continues in that direction with some excellent melodic riffing over crunching chord changes and scattered Katatonia-influenced repetitive-picking riffs. Netzell’s deep growl complements the music perfectly, and he does a great job of varying his tone and delivery to match the music. October Tide also softens their massive doom sound with more peaceful sections quite effectively, and almost seem at their best when constructing delicate, peaceful interludes between the thunderous doom riffs. But when it comes down to it, doom is often about crafting distinctive, memorable and emotionally-resonant melodies, and A Thin Shell demonstrates October Tide’s unquestionable mastery of that elusive art. Standout tracks such as ‘A Custodian of Science,’ ‘Deplorable Request,’ and ‘The Dividing Line’ are hopelessly addictive and will have you spinning this album constantly for quite awhile.

A Thin Shell feels a bit further away from the bleak, depressive atmosphere that early Katatonia and the early October Tide albums captured so effectively; instead the songs on A Thin Shell sound closer to other modern doom bands like Daylight Dies, Rapture or Swallow The Sun. However, it’s not enough of a departure that older fans of the band won’t also enjoy it, and certainly the vocals will have those disappointed in Grey Dawn breathing a sigh of relief. I would guess that Normann and the rest of October Tide’s members are probably trying to distance themselves a bit from their former band with this record, and in some ways they have been successful, but fortunately A Thin Shell is a release that should leave both old fans and newer ones quite satisfied.

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