Downriver Dead Men Go -
Tides


(CD 2015, 58:06, Private Release)

The tracks:
  1- The Dying Of The Light(4:08)
  2- Walking Away(5:10)
  3- Wake up(5:23)
  4- Never Change(6:42)
  5- The Ghost Of Caitlin(6:27)
  6- Tides(7:16)
  7- Undertow(5:44)
  8- Stone In My Heart(11:02)
  9- River (Bonus track)(6:09)

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Downriver Dead Men Go are a Dutch band. It is the side project of band members of the band Caitlin (Gerrit Koekebakker, Fernandez Burton and Andy de Zeeuw), and additional musician Gijs van Rijn. Tides is the band's debut album. I love the cover of the album, a beautiful and serene painting. This album was pretty tough to review. This is not the regular music I listen to but I can appreciate it. To me, it's alternative slow rock/post rock music with long stretching musical themes. I do love the atmosphere that surrounds the album. It's dark, it's somewhat depressing as well, but very beautiful. Don't expect up tempo and cheery music elements while listening to this album. The vocals done by Gerrit are good, it contains a lot of emotion, but it's not my cup of tea. I'm sure a lot of people would disagree with me about that.

The intro track The Dying Of The Light is lovely. You hear some bird sounds in the beginning followed by some keyboard sounds and string sound patterns. Walking Away starts with a guitar, keyboard soundscapes and vocals. It's dreary and gloomy, like most of the tracks on this album will be. The quite up tempo drums are filling up the track. I love the haunting brass sounds in the background during the third track Wake Up. They are clearly present and determine the ambiance of this song. The track Never Change has a very beautiful intro. It reminds me of Storm Corrosion's song Ljudet Innan. I think it's my favourite song from the album. Fifth track The Ghost Of Caitlin is an instrumental track. It has a very long, atmospheric intro with guitars and soundscapes and later on more sounds and guitars slowly fill up the space. Tides is a continuation of the track Ghost Of Caitlin. The music becomes more up tempo and drums are now playing along as well. Seventh track Undertow is another instrumental piece of music. At the end of the song you hear a choir singing in the background. Stone In My Heart is the longest track of the album. It's bit too tame and too slow for me, but it carries a beautiful dark atmosphere. River is a bonus track on the album. In contrast of the rest of the album, this track is very up tempo. It is very country/western like, with the typical country guitar sounds and sliding guitars. Too bad this is the only track on the album that sounds this way because I really like it. Love the organ solo at the end of the track as well. This band would do great as a country band in my opinion!

If you like dark, slow rock with a lot of emotion then this is a must have. For those who want to read a name to which band they might be compared, I think they come closest to the Italian band Nosounds! The guys of Downriver Dead Men Go are doing a great job and I hope I will see them perform live someday.

**** Iris Hidding (edited by Astrid de Ronde)

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