{"id":559030,"date":"2026-02-01T16:55:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T16:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/559030\/"},"modified":"2026-02-01T16:55:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T16:55:10","slug":"coronatus-dreadful-waters-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/559030\/","title":{"rendered":"Coronatus – Dreadful Waters Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Like a sailor\u2019s call to the sea, I am routinely compelled to the sub-genre of symphonic metal in all of its be-corset-ed miscellany. Why? Maybe I need a break from dudes singing ugly for ladies singing pretty. Maybe falling for Seven Spires <\/strong>justified my continued curiosity in the style. Maybe I\u2019ve never been as happy as I was discovering Imaginaerum in high school. Regardless, the call brought me now to the German symphonic group Coronatus <\/strong>and their new record, Dreadful Waters. Led by songwriter\/drummer Mats Kurth, Coronatus <\/strong>features three singers in mezzo sopranos Leni Eitrich and Sabine Prechtel, and \u201crock vocals\u201d by Nemesis, who also contributes to songwriting along with guitarist Harry Zeidler. Rounded out with bassist Simon Gutbrod and violinist Tine J\u00fclich, Coronatus <\/strong>wrote Dreadful Waters with a focus on \u201cmerging mysticism, danger and the elemental force of water.\u201d All good words, but does Dreadful Waters bring the strings to live up to them and, more importantly, can Coronatus <\/strong>meet my fix for symphonic metal?<\/p>\n

Whatever Coronatus<\/strong> is doing, Dreadful Waters sounds nice doing it. Oscillating between varying degrees of symphonic (\u201cThe Siren\u201d and \u201cDie Hexe und der Teufel\u201d) and nautically inclined folk metals (\u201cSouthern Cross\u201d and \u201cA Seaman\u2019s Yarn\u201d), Dreadful Waters\u2019 production and mix bring out the best in Coronatus<\/strong>\u2019 instrumentation and give everything a rich openness. Guitars sound chunky and bold while taking on an auxiliary role to the violin and vocals, which are always warm and upfront. Coronatus<\/strong>\u2019 mezzo sopranos bring your typical Tarja-era Nightwish<\/strong> operatics to \u201cThe Maelstrom\u201d and \u201cTo the Reef!\u201d while Nemesis\u2019 \u201crock voice\u201d means she brings a J\u00f8rn<\/strong>-like grizzled theatricality to her performances on \u201cDark Ice\u201d and \u201cThe Ship\u2019s Cook.\u201d But what really stands out to me is Kurth\u2019s drumming, which is more nuanced than the average symphonic drumming performance. The kick patterns on \u201cThrough the Brightest Blue\u201d\u2018s chorus sound more like a Lamb of God <\/strong>drum track than Nightwish<\/strong>, and \u201cTo the Reef!\u201d boasts a palpable jauntiness thanks to the percussion groove. Dreadful Waters is composed of many different pieces, so it\u2019s nice that Coronatus <\/strong>got them all to sound good together.<\/p>\n

But symphonic metal lives and dies on its vocalists, and while Coronatus<\/strong>\u2019 singers are skilled musicians, their performances can feel awkward. Each vocalist often brings an almost comical level of warble to their voices, swinging tracks like \u201cSouthern Cross\u201d and \u201cA Seaman\u2019s Yarn\u201d towards the ridiculous. Nemesis in particular can overdo it, as her heavy, gravelly vibrato can at times chew the scenery. The mezzo soprano and \u201crock voice\u201d stylings also sometimes stand at odds with each other, as on songs like \u201cThe Siren\u201d and \u201cDark Ice,\u201d they blend poorly and give off the impression that they weren\u2019t in the studio at the same time. When Coroantus<\/strong> coalesce, like on the album highlight \u201cThe Ship\u2019s Cook,\u201d the result is a riveting blend of sophistication and grit that I could listen to all day, but moments like this are unfortunately rare on Dreadful Waters.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The slight vocal issues I see on Dreadful Waters may be a symptom of a larger issue on the album: the lukewarm songcraft. Coronatus<\/strong>\u2019 songs mostly stick to either a slowburn or mid-paced stomp, featuring pretty folk melodies and pleasant orchestrations but little in the way of gripping hooks or powerful performances. Further, vocal melodies are usually played overly straight, throwing few unexpected turns or interesting intervals in favor of a fairly standard symphonic metal play sheet. This makes the more metal-friendly tracks like \u201cThe Maelstrom\u201d and \u201cThe Siren\u201d come off a bit tepid and, at Dreadful Waters\u2019 worst, its ballads in \u201cSouthern Cross\u201d and \u201cDie Hexe und der Teufel\u201d real slogs to get through. Only \u201cThe Ship\u2019s Cook\u201d excited me, and that\u2019s because its power metal-adjacent vocal heroics and bouncy chorus melody embody what is woefully missing on much of Dreadful Waters: character.<\/p>\n

Dreadful Waters neither sinks nor swims. Far from awful, this record\u2019s shortcomings stem from not doing enough to stand out from the symphonic crowd or playing exceptionally well into its tropes. Less fairweather fans of symphonic metal than I may get more out of Coronatus<\/strong>\u2019 style, but detractors of the style won\u2019t be swayed from their haterdom by it either. Coronatus <\/strong>snagged a real winner with \u201cThe Ship\u2019s Cook,\u201d though, so I don\u2019t foresee terrible sailing for the band in their future. But for meeting the need for big strings over my metal, Dreadful Waters doesn\u2019t do it for me.<\/p>\n

\ufeff\ufeff<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: Disappointing
DR<\/strong>: 9 | Format Reviewed<\/strong>: 192 kbps MP3
Label<\/strong>: Massacre Records<\/a>
Websites<\/strong>: facebook.com\/coronatusofficial<\/a> | coronatus.de<\/a>
Releases Worldwide<\/strong>: January 23rd, 2026<\/p>\n

\n\tGive in to Your Anger:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Like a sailor\u2019s call to the sea, I am routinely compelled to the sub-genre of symphonic metal in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":559031,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[29],"tags":[146853,12086,244261,244262,171,118418,87809,228589,244263,29033,244264,975,244265,2290,11853,244266,132116,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-559030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-2-0","tag-12086","tag-coronatus","tag-dreadful-waters","tag-entertainment","tag-folk-metal","tag-german-metal","tag-jan26","tag-jorn","tag-lamb-of-god","tag-massacre-records","tag-music","tag-nightwish","tag-review","tag-reviews","tag-seven-spires","tag-symphonic-metal","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115996427915377882","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=559030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/559031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=559030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=559030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=559030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}