Info
- Band(s): Winterfylleth
- Label(s): Candlelight Records
- Release Format(s): 12" vinyl, CD
- Release Year: 2024
- Review Date: January 6, 2025
- Author(s): FelixS
Although Winterfylleth has become more or less synonymous with everything sounding safe, slick and accessible in Black Metal over the past few years, the English collective has still managed to leave a firm mark on contemporary epic and Atmospheric Black Metal. In this, they align with bands such as the American Wolves In The Throne Room and Scottish Soar. This has opened the door to the popularity of niche genres like “Cascadian Black Metal” or “indigenous Black Metal”. Genres that in themselves bring nothing new because love for one’s native soil, a preference for folk and folkore using indigenous melodies and instruments have been an integral part of Black Metal since the early years of the Second Wave.
It is therefore debatable to argue that a band like Winterfylleth has no right to exist or should not be filed under the Black Metal umbrella. Winterfylleth indeed do not share the same themes and do not carry the same values as Venom, Blasphemy or Marduk, but have delivered strong albums in their own musical domain with ‘The Mercian Sphere’ (2010) and ‘The Hallowing Of Heirdom’ (2018). That the music sounds friendlier and indeed overall more accessible is not only a personal value judgement but, more importantly, is also a matter of taste.
With eight full-length albums under their belt now, among other things, it is also not so surprising to find that not everything is equally strong or comes out well. Unfortunately, ‘The Imperious Horizon’ also falls into this category. Although fundamentally nothing has changed about how the band shapes its music, this album as a whole is much less engaging. The riffs are very clean and safe even by Winterfylleth standards and the melodies less epic and memorable. On top of that, including the Emperor cover (‘The Majesty Of The Night Sky’) and an alternative version of ‘In Silent Grace’, this album comes down to a whopping 75 minutes, which just means a hellishly long ride. Especially when the music sounds so uniform.
That uniformity is the biggest flaw on ‘The Imperious Horizon’. Whereas many of the previous albums did show a strong sense of dynamics and variety, that is much less the case here. Most typical is ‘In Silent Grace’, largely sung by Primordial’s Alan “A.A. Nemtheanga” Averill. Primordial is a band that has delivered good albums, but none of them make it to the finish line without any stinkers. It is the dull and plain dreadful songs with Averill’s worst vocals that, with every Primordial album, makes you happy again that there is a ‘skip’-button on your Spotify or CD player – damn you, vinyl records! Unfortunately, via Averill a little too much of that Primordial-like dullness has crept into this latest Winterfylleth album.
Of course, it’s nonsense to blame Alan Averill for this far less successful album, but it’s also hard not to see the parallels. But the most typical thing is actually that the Emperor cover, originally appearing on ‘In The Nightside Eclipse’ album, is the musical highlight of the album. By the way, the other bonus track, the “AA Nemtheanga Solo Version” of ‘In Silent Grace’ is the absolute low point. In conclusion, ‘The Imperious Horizon’ turns out to be the band’s weakest album to date and unfortunately is definitely not living up to its cover artwork nor its title.
Winterfylleth
- Country: United Kingdom
- Style: Black Metal
- Links: Facebook, Instagram, Bandcamp, Spotify
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Candlelight Records
- Country: United Kingdom
- Style: Black Metal, Thrash Metal, Thrash Metal
- Links: Homepage, Facebook, Instagram, Bandcamp, Youtube
