Album Review: Fate, Wine, & Wisteria (October Noir)

October Noir is used to fill in void left by Type O Negative, which broke up for good after their vocalist, writer and frontman Peter Steele died way too early at 48 in 2010. Six years after the band broke up, a Type O Negative fan from Florida named Tom Noir formed the band October Noir and released their first two albums. Now October Noir is back with their third album, *Fate, Wine, & Wisteria*, which was released in 2021, marking third consecutive odd-numbered year that October Noir album gets released. We saw the release of *The Haunting and the Powerful* in 2017 and *Thirteen* in 2019. Just like the third album by Type O Negative *Bloody Kisses* being groundbreaking for that band, I wondered if *FW&W* be as groundbreaking for October Noir.

When you look at the album, the first thing you notice is a girl on the cover with her mostly bare legs. On the background looks like a building with pillars on the front (which resembles the front of the White House) with skulls and bones on the ground. Actually this shot took place in her bedroom with "pillars" actually are candles. Skulls and bones are keepsakes that the girl collected in the nature, sit atop the tables.

The album contains thirteen tracks, three of them are brief instrumentals that start the respective chapters—they are "Fate", "Wine", and "Wisteria".

"Fate" begins the Fate Chapter with haunting piano and another keyboard later comes up. It's interesting there's a song titled "Windows", and this one is pretty good. It splits into four parts just like a one-intersecting cross on a window splitting into four parts. "Reverence (Make You Love)" is a mediocre track this is where love could be made. "Effigy" sounds too much like Misfits and is repetitive. Yes, it's a track where Halloween comes and lyrics is about a masked man killing their friends while camping on Halloween night, which reminds me of Michael Myers in *Halloween* movies.

It begins the next chapter of the album with "Wine", which is just a preview to the next track "Persephone". The atmosphere on "Persephone" is such that it could make me and others cry. The lyrics though is mythological that references Greek goddess Persephone. "Serendipity" has three cantos, including the first canto that is tranquil and has starry tones making me feel like being under the sky full of twinkling stars. Those tones are similar to the tones frequently utilized on space metal band Widek. The last two cantos have the keys pressed on an organ for the whole time, which is also very good. "Wanderlust" is doomy but with lust added to it. "Cradle the Monster" is very speedy and lyrics are chaotic and violent, including involving killing pedophiles (those who love children). This musical style is more akin to certain thrash metal bands like Cannibal Corpse.

"Wisteria is the final instrumental track of the album. This one has nature sounds in them with birds and frogs. "Sistinas" is a Danzig cover that I'm not a fan off. It sounds too much like a re-recording of that Danzig song. "Proverbs" has a really good beginning, but the rest, not so great. In the middle of this song, there's a use of the Chinese string instrument called guzheng (pronounced "guchang"), which is heard as medium-pitched strings. "Proverbs", just like "An Ode to Locksmiths" by Type O Negative, talks about Adam & Eve. The final track is "Goodbye Black Bird", which contains influences of 90s alternative in them. Although this is a mediocre track, it sounds really appropriate for the closing track.

I felt that the musical elements on this album are more mainstream than the first two albums. The relative mainstream nature might be an effort to making the band more popular, but they might've tried too hard in "Effigy" and "Sistinas". The sounds are very diverse. We witnessed a few influences of alternative, punk, thrash, nature sounds, and even space music.

6.5/10