The Gothenburg Project 01.02.09: Wintersun
Posted by Matt Shoemaker on 01.02.2009
The Gothenburg Project kicks off 2009 with one of the most technically profound albums around, Wintersun's self titled debut album! Featuring one of the fastest songs around, "Battle Against Time", this is a band you can't afford to miss!
Happy New Year to everyone. Hope you all had a great night of partying or whatever else you were doing. I know I did. So it's a new year, and it's time to look at a new band, since In Flames wrapped up last week. I did a bit of thinking about which band to cover this week, and I haven't really found one that really stands out yet, at least in terms of a long term column, like the In Flames series. I've been looking at a few bands outside of the standard melodic death metal genre, bands like Children of Bodom, Opeth, Amon Amarth, and Ensiferum. I guess you'll all have to wait till next week to find out. Hell, maybe I will too.
As far as this week, I found a band that's more than suitable as filler for this week.
Wintersun
Band Members
Jari Mäenpää − vocals, guitar (studio keyboards, bass on Wintersun)
Teemu Mäntysaari − guitar
Jukka Koskinen − bass
Kai Hahto − drums
(Note: Spellcheck is having a field day with that)
Wintersun originally began as a side project of Mäenpää, who, at the time, was the vocalist/guitarist of Viking metal band Ensiferum. However, due to scheduling conflicts between the recording sessions for Wintersun and the touring dates for Ensiferum, Mäenpää was forced to choose between the two. He chose Wintersun, leaving Ensiferum for good, being replaced by Norther's Petri Lindrews. Mäenpää recorded all the guitars, vocals, and keyboards by himself, enlisting Kai Hahto to record the drums. He also recruited a second guitarist and a bassist for live shows.
Album Info
Recorded: January- May 2004, Sundi Coop Studios Released: Semptember 13, 2004; Nuclear Blast Records Produced by: Jari Mäenpää
Track Listing
1. "Beyond the Dark Sun" 2:38 (1998)
2. "Winter Madness" 5:08 (2002)
3. "Sleeping Stars" 5:41 (1995-2003)
4. "Battle Against Time" 7:03 (2002-2003)
5. "Death and the Healing" 7:13 (1996)
6. "Starchild" 7:54 (2000-2003)
7. "Beautiful Death" 8:16 (2003)
8. "Sadness and Hate" 10:16 (1996)
This is an incredible album, especially for having been recorded by two men. It manages to merge incredible speed, almost mechanical technical precision, almost folk like melodies, and aggressive power to form one of the most musically impressive albums of the genre. However, which genre that is has become a bit of a debatable subject over the few years this album has been around. The band combines many different elements of metal, including power, folk, progressive, melodic death, and melodic black metal. There are definitely songs that illustrate each of those genres on this album, which adds to its appeal. It's really an album that can be enjoyed by fans of a lot of different genres.
"Beyond the Dark Sun" is a fantastic opener, using its speed and power to keep the listener engaged, and transitions flawlessly into "Winter Madness". The speed shown, even on the first few tracks of this album, are incredible, but it doesn't truly shine until track four, "Battle Against Time".
This track is easily one of the fastest I've ever heard, in probably all of metal. Starting out with blindingly fast blast beats, shredding guitars, and chorus-like chanting, it keeps a solid pace for about two minutes before the drums finally slow down, if only barely, only to pick back up for the verse, when the vocals kick in, and from there, it's all out aggression and power, occasionally reverting to the speed sections for a few measures. It's absolutely incredible that Hahto can keep the paces he does for so long. Aside from the opening track, there really isn't a short track on this album, and his endurance is remarkable. This song probably illustrates the melodic black metal aspect of the band the most. The speed and slight keyboard melody remind me a lot of Dimmu Borgir.
Rivaling that as my top song of the album is "Beautiful Death", an excellent attempt at pure metal. This song does everything right. The lyrics mirror those of traditional power metal, sans the singing, while the guitars provide an excellent canvas for the lyrics.
"Starchild" is more a folk-themed song, at least in the musical sense. There are a lot of riffs that seem to fit in well with traditional folk metal. "Sadness and Hate" is a bit slower than rest, but still powerful. Due to the length, they probably cut out a lot of speed, for endurance purposes. The song is probably also one of the more technical songs on the album, deciding not to resort to blast beats to impress. The sound right before the first scream comes in, oddly, sounds like a fart. It was pretty offputting, but didn't really detract from the song that much. I think this was their attempt at progressive metal, and, in all honesty, it's not bad. I think Wintersun is better off sticking to folk/melodic death metal, but doing something like this once in a while isn't a bad thing.
All in all, if you're looking for a really good, technical metal album, this is definitely for you. This is one of, if not the most technically sound album I've ever heard. Everything is on point, from start to finish. 9/10.
Wintersun's next album, Time, is due to come out sometime this year, and is said to be heavier, and more melodic than this album, including a 14 minute epic melodic piece. To say I'm excited for that album is a huge understatement.
"Battle Against Time"
So that does it for this week. Here's hoping 2009 brings you some great new music!
