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WINTER: Into Darkness (Album Review)

By Kate Wilcox

Release Date: April 12th, 2011
Review Date: March 26th, 2011
Label: Southern Lord

My rating:



    Track Listing:
  1. Oppression Freedom
  2. Servants of the Warsmen
  3. Goden
  4. Power and Might
  5. Destiny
  6. Eternal Frost
  7. Into Darkness

Initially released by Nuclear Blast back in 1990, this classic album will finally see the light of day once again. "Into Darkness" was largely overlooked by doom fans everywhere but I think it will finally get the recognition it deserves some two decades later. This album stays more on the line of old doom while still carrying the spirit of death metal, bringing odd riffs and haunting keys. "Into Darkness" is the type of album that will slowly crawl into your brain and stay there until it completely consumes you.

The opening track, completely instrumental, crawls along for six minutes with a haunting ambience and keyboards in the background. "Servants of Warsmen" brings in that element of death metal with brutal vocals and ferocity. "Goden" is another that doesn't break away from the clutches of doom. Clocking in at a solid eight minutes, this track carries a significant amount of heaviness and John Alman's vocals sound darker than ever. "Destiny" breaks away again from the norm with double bass pedaling and wrenching guitar. That changes back to more of a melancholy rhythm while the vocals suck you into a pit of nothingness. "Into Darkness" has more great double bass and chugging guitar rhythm, probably the longest track on the album at 9 minutes but is intriguing enough to capture your attention. A perfect ending to a classic album. The production is the one thing that takes a little getting used to, with the guitar and drums right up front in the mix, but after a few songs you realize this a major part of Winter's sound.

Nobody was doing what Winter was doing back in 1990 and unfortunately was largely ignored by the metal community. Hopefully with this reissue, they'll finally get the praise that they respectfully deserve.

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