Winterfylleth
The Imperious Horizon
9/10
The Imperious Horizon, if nothing else, reminds us why we love Winterfylleth. Once again they have come forth with an offering that will surely feature in a lot of people’s rotation for years to come; a testament to the experience and reliability of being at the forefront of the melodic black metal movement since 2006. Strictly speaking there is nothing wildly innovative or new about this offering, it’s just good, a rock solid Black Metal album; a healthy addition to an already thriving Black Metal renaissance. It is not without its faults though, the album certainly has the tendency to sound similar track-to-track, a detail not uncommon in black metal, this album is just yet another example of this expression. It is not necessarily a bad thing either, more Winterfylleth is always a welcome sentiment, and when bands try to force a change in their style it can often end badly. Overall I am extremely pleased with The Imperious Horizon; It has featured heavily at the top of my rotation ever since I got my hands on it, and I am sure that it will stay there for the foreseeable future.
I will try my best to dissect this album without sounding like every other review ever. Instead of choosing categories, I went with abstract ideas and feelings to describe. I will not pretend to be the authority on metal, these are simply my thoughts. That is why I like to lay out my conclusion of the album in the opening with my score for the album, so you can decide if you agree with me, or if you think I should eat shit; because we as metalheads are nothing if not snobs about our own particular taste. So without further adieu; let’s get started.
VISION
One of the most important details in metal is aesthetic. Artists often build an identity with each release, and the Imperious Horizon is no different. Bleak and dystopian, that’s what I felt come through the music when listening to this one, and what’s more bleak than a frigid mountain range? The album art here plays perfectly into the subject matter. It is by no means a concept album, and I feel that there are still some traditional Winterfylleth themes here as well. They blend their established motif of history and nature with modern societal issues and political strife seamlessly. I feel like the lyrics are an insiders look at a world divided. It’s a theme that unfortunately many people in western society can relate to at the moment and Chris’s poignant lyrics certainly reflect this. I had the chance to interview Chris a few weeks ago and he confirmed that the state of society today was on the forefront of his mind when composing the album. Winterfylleth’s vision rarely falters and comes through very well in their music, especially on Imperious Horizon, and they took great care in putting together a motif that works with the concept, at least in the abstract.
MASTERY
Winterfylleth has had the same core members for nearly the entire life of the band creating a palpable chemistry in their music. These are professionals, they know their instruments well and they’ve been able to find pieces to fit in over the years to help fill the few gaps they’ve had in their lineup. Even with the notable absence of Dan Capp, they still manage to put out one of their best performances on this release. There is not much else to say about the instrumentation. While black metal may seem simple, it takes incredible skill to play well; if nothing else the endurance required to put together enough songs for a complete set is incredibly difficult to sustain. It may not be the most technical composition, but where it lacks in complexity it more than makes up for in pure and raw intensity and feeling; which is arguably more impressive to sustain over the lifetime of a band, something Winterfylleth has done immensely well.
HARMONY
Simply put, the production on this album is near perfect. I feel even bands that are extremely talented can write a great album but lose it in production. Even Winterfylleth has fallen victim to this in the past; some of their previous albums have suffered from an unbalanced mix having the drums drown out the guitars and vocals. But I am happy to say that this is not the case with The Imperious Horizon. The mix leaves room for everything to come through crystal clear. There are no moments where certain elements are too quiet or too loud. In music production a good mix goes unnoticed; if it doesn’t draw your focus, then it’s likely a perfect mix just as it is here. One of the difficulties in mixing black metal is that even if there is room in the mix for the vocals, sometimes the lyrics of the songs can be difficult to pick up just due to the nature of the music; it’s very chaotic and the vocal style can be difficult to understand, especially to an untrained ear. All in all, The Imperious Horizon shines in the production; everything is clean, crisp and easy to hear.
RESONANCE
Atmosphere, the proverbial flagship of Black Metal. It’s really difficult to nail down exactly what ‘atmosphere’ is in music, but I think that it’s less of something you have to define and more something that you feel. We can sit here and argue semantics over how to define atmosphere in black metal, or I can simply describe how the album resonated with me. Spoiler alert, I fucking love it. When I got my hands on the album, I was having a bad day. I was on my way home from work, and I noticed we got sent the album. I immediately pulled over and put it on. Almost immediately my trepidations faded. I was lost in the music. It transported my mind somewhere into a welcome abyss of chaos and pure emotion. It was magical. Very rarely am I put into this sort of fugue state by a new album. Needless to say I think that the atmosphere or resonance of this album is top notch. It is truly where this album shines the brightest. It finds itself in a class of music atop most of my rotation and has featured heavily since the first time I put it on.
INNOVATION
Innovation may be the only thing holding this album back from being a 10/10. I think the music is great, the production is elite, the band itself puts on an incredible performance, and while Winterfylleth is usually known for pushing boundaries, there really is not much on this album that the band has not done before. Not every release needs to be innovative though. Winterfylleth did the things that Winterfylleth knows how to do, and they did them in an order that was exactly what it needed to be. The lack of innovation in no way is a detriment to the album, it just might have been the thing that pushed it over the top.
LEGACY
Ultimately, this album is top tier Black Metal. The Imperious Horizon will surely have a long shelf life for me, since release it’s dominated my rotation with no sign of slowing down. I really hope this is the album that brings them across the Atlantic; though it looks as though I am going to have to catch them at a European festival this year. If you’re like me and you like atmospheric melodic black metal with medieval influenced lyrics and sick album art, then what the fuck are you doing still reading this? Go listen to the album.
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