WINTERSUN

The new band by the former frontman in the finnish metal band Ensiferium Jari Maenpaa is quite the experience. A very symphonic euro power/ black metal album. The speed and rawness in the vocal department of black metal and the symphonic and classical inspired elements from european power metal. The raw vocals ( there are clean ones too) are not too bad though, they remind me of Jeff Walker from Carcass.

The album is basically split between fast ( and I mean really FAST) songs and slower bombastic ones. Fans of Rhapsody/ Rhapsody of Fire or Dragonforce that can tolerate death/ black vocals will love this record. It´s just as grand and majestic as anything from those bands. Nothing is subtle or hinted at in these songs. You get a massive wall of sound when you put on Wintersun. Lots of things go on in every song, in that respect you can also compare Wintersun to Blind Guardian´s A Night at the Opera.

I don´t think fans of black metal will find it very enjoyable though, as it is probably way too soft and melodic. The prog metal tendencies are mostly in the structure of the songs as the overall sound is still that of power metal.

All instruments are played by Jari Maenpaa, except for the drums which are played by Kai "The Grinder" Hahto. Both do a spendid job and deserve recognition as technically brilliant musicians for their playing on this album.

All in all this is a Power metal album gone black. I enjoyed it tremendously, but I do get a little tired of the style after a while, so this is a solid 3 stars album( 3.5).