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On disc: Winterfylleth



The Mercian Sphere - Mike Thompson - 10 stars
The Threnody Of Triumph - Lars Bjørn - 7 stars


www.myspace.com/winterfylleth







The Threnody Of Triumph

The Threnody Of Triumph
(Candlelight Records - 2012)


Black metal with a dose of folk metal is what Winterfylleth gives their fans. Their third album is called The Threnody Of Triumph, and makes references to the old word threnody (means lament or ode). Trying to give a picture of ancient times English history they fight and strives through inner black and gothic demons on their way. Atmospheric black metal with instrumental surprises built in comes more or less organized from Winterfylleth who let their ambitions shine through as they start with A Thousand Winters where you get the creepy atmospheric drum dominated metal, very melodic and skilled, still black as the cellar. The Swart Raven goes aggressively for a top ranking with a gentle and black mix that are full of good ideas, musically they could go a long way with this kind of advanced black metal. The Glorious Plain has a mysterious and hard gothic rhythm that places Winterfylleth on a pedestal of total black and genuine metal, just better and more complex than much of the other black metal around today. The Fate Of Souls After Death are filled with massive metal and packed in a kind of sad atmosphere. The best quality of Winterfylleth is their ability to make many different nuances in their black metal universe, that gives them a more sophisticated renommee.


7 stars

Lars Bjørn
 

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The Mercian Sphere

The Mercian Sphere
(Candlelight Records - 2010)


Winterfylleth are one of the bands at the forefront of a small but growing movement of English bands celebrating England's Anglo-Saxon heritage and culture through extreme metal. Their debut album, The Ghost Of Heritage, was a high class display of melancholy yet not depressing black metal and was well received. This sophomore effort, The Mercian Sphere, has been highly anticipated by fans for some time now.
Whilst the music played by Winterfylleth is undoubtedly black metal there is, thankfully, something very different about the feel of this album that separates this band from its contemporaries. The furiously pounding kick drumming is there, the rasped, snarling vocals are present, the guitars have that undeniably black metal sound characterized by tremolo picking and the band's sound has a lot in common with a lot of Eastern European pagan black metal bands... and yet there is something fresh to the sound of Winterfylleth, something which was shown on both the debut and this album. They use some folky sounds, occasional chants and whispered vocals to add atmosphere and are not scared to deviate from the black metal norm. They also display some doom influences at times, in The Honour Of Good Men On The Path To Eternal Glory, for example, and this gives the music an even more interesting edge.
The guys also add some variety to the sound with acoustic interludes like Children Of The Stones. This song in particular adds a great deal to the feel of the album as a lament for England's lost heritage and is a beautiful piece of music.
Very often I look at the track lists of black metal bands and feel a sinking feeling in my stomach when I notice that most of the songs are of epic length and the same was true of this album. Of the ten songs, most are over five minutes, five are over seven minutes and two track surpass the ten-minute mark! Most bands, I have found, tend to repeat themselves and write boring, over-long songs. However, to my joy Winterfylleth have managed to avoid that and actually written excellent songs that keep the listener interested throughout in a way that I have only truly found before in the excellent Darkestrah.
Overall this is a stunning example of black metal from a country not renowned for producing much in the way of quality bands in this genre. Winterfylleth have released a real gem with this album and I urge you to check it out!


10 stars

Mike Thompson
 

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