Artist: Winterborn
Label: Massacre Records
Release: 2009
Duration: 55:41
Rating: 4/5
Winterborn are Finnish power metallers with the occasional gentle detour into progressive metal sounds. The vocals are authoritative, commanding and melodic. The singer handles a wide range of tonalities with ease and stays convincing throughout. Going by how he approaches melody in the verses, it’s not hard to guess that heavy Ronnie James Dio listening shaped his development in the past, but since he (can) add a touch of rasp now and then, the tone and singing style pull toward Mike Dimeo (ex-Riot, ex-Masterplan, The Lizards).
Winterborn are chasing melodic perfection above all. Their songs have epic scope and bombast, with anthemic chorus hooks. Being generic is the Achilles’ heel of rock and metal today, and Winterborn barely escape it either. So, nothing new on the horizon. It’s a tried-and-tested power metal template, but with a nice dose of smart color thanks to more varied motifs, which burst out mostly in the instrumental middle sections (Chaos Dwells Within is the first typical example, with solos trading blows between keyboards and guitar). Or take The Winter War, where the aggressive, supersonic keyboard soloing really stands out, peaking in an explosive closing “crescendo” as the song turns into a proper metal storm.
But that’s not all. A Hammond-style keyboard embrace likes to sneak into the sound, following a simple, stripped-down riff in the background of Seven Deadly Sins, a mid-tempo number loaded with melodic pomp, delivered by the vocal approach, and one that should grab anyone who worships old-school Rainbow or late (read: melodic) Black Sabbath. It’s a gorgeous piece, leaning heavily on melodic hard rock elements and laced with the occasional metal touch of double bass drum pedals, a dynamically crafted bit of rock’n’roll roguery with several moods. An impressive, bold move that comes as a big surprise after the punchy, invasive, simpler gallop of the album’s opening, and lifts the record to a higher level of quality and expression. The Land Of The Free follows the same mold, and it’s where Winterborn most maturely put their balls on the table, so you can measure exactly how far they swing without any brakes. The bombast of the chorus is toxically, melodically contagious. Generic, but maximally convincing in production, the motifs are clearly defined, and the melody can be downright addictive. Mission accomplished!
Winterborn are enterprising lads. They thought of everything for the new album. Acoustic moments like the intro, where they lift an old Running Wild trick, or Uverture 1939! Then there’s Emptiness Inside, which stands out on the album with an old-school spirit of Dream Theater’s debut or the “Rage For Order/Operation Mindcrime” era of Queensryche (watch out for the type of guitar phrases and how they layer and flow into each other). It’s another mini epic suite, and that’s where Winterborn are at their most convincing. Nightfall Symphony is an interesting hybrid, smelling of old American power metal instability in the pre-chorus, like early Queensryche or even Savatage, and then the chorus gets overtaken by the half-step wailing of late Black Sabbath. The guys raise a high curtain of metal dust again with the thundering, roaring, speedy Last Man Standing, which in its damn aggression could easily have replaced the opener Black Rain. The album closes with another epic suite, running over ten minutes and marking a new peak for the record. In the right place, too. At the end. The intro to this closing Another World will interest anyone who knows old Vanden Plas. So: symphonic pomp with the full-bodied production of a pulsing, lively beat. The guys even allow themselves to break up the pre-chorus riff rhythmically, hinting at the song’s direct progressive pulse. Vanden Plas remain a fitting reference in the impressively polished, highly melodic chorus too, where they keep up the dramatic mood on through to the end of the album, at a high level.
This is Winterborn’s second album, and it builds on the debut. It boasts more consistency and an even sharper expressive focus, which is what the band is clearly reaching for. Generic approach aside, this is an album that’s hewn and produced “full on” and comes across as very convincing. As the individual building blocks of the album add up and multiply into one body, it becomes clear that this is a high-quality, accomplished record. It’s all about chasing the perfect melody first, then pushing the punch, topped off with a masterful dose of symphonic bombast that will have anyone receptive to Scandinavian melancholic melody wrapped around its finger with no trouble. Given the pile of boring metal albums that have been coming out for the second year running, Winterborn could be just the balm for your (potentially exalted) ears. Give them a chance. A band with great talent and real potential, who will surely conjure up plenty more interesting things from their hard-working hands in the future.
Lineup
Teemu Koskela – vocals
Pasi Vapola – guitar, backing vocals
Antti Hokkala – guitar, backing vocals
Jukka Hänninen – keyboards, backing vocals
Pasi Kauppinen – bass guitar, backing vocals
Lauri Bexar – drums
Production
Pasi Vapola
Track list
1. Black Rain (4:56)
2. Chaos Dwells Within (4:27)
3. Seven Deadly Sins (5:11)
4. Overture 1939 (3:17)
5. The Winter War (5:30)
6. The Land of the Free (6:10)
7. Emptiness Inside (6:49)
8. Nightfall Symphony (5:29)
9. Last Man Standing (4:30)
10. Another World (10:29)
