Wintersun - Wintersun
| Release date: | 13 September 2004 |
| Style: | Extreme power metal |
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Owners: |
1944 have it 164 want it 2 trade it |
Disc I
01. Beyond The Dark Sun
02. Winter Madness
03. Sleeping Stars
04. Battle Against Time
05. Death And The Healing
06. Starchild
07. Beautiful Death
08. Sadness And Hate
09. Winter Madness [demo] [Japanese bonus]
10. Beyond The Dark Sun [demo] [Japanese bonus]
11. Death And The Healing [demo] [Japanese bonus]
Disc II [Live At Summer Breeze 2005 DVD] [2006 Special Tour Edition re-release bonus]
01. Beyond The Dark Sun
02. Battle Against Time
03. Sleeping Stars
04. Beautiful Death
05. Death And The Healing
06. Winter Madness
The best debut album of 2004
Top 20 albums of 2004: 1
Top 200 albums of all time: 25
01. Beyond The Dark Sun
02. Winter Madness
03. Sleeping Stars
04. Battle Against Time
05. Death And The Healing
06. Starchild
07. Beautiful Death
08. Sadness And Hate
09. Winter Madness [demo] [Japanese bonus]
10. Beyond The Dark Sun [demo] [Japanese bonus]
11. Death And The Healing [demo] [Japanese bonus]
Disc II [Live At Summer Breeze 2005 DVD] [2006 Special Tour Edition re-release bonus]
01. Beyond The Dark Sun
02. Battle Against Time
03. Sleeping Stars
04. Beautiful Death
05. Death And The Healing
06. Winter Madness
The best debut album of 2004
Top 20 albums of 2004: 1
Top 200 albums of all time: 25
Reviews 
Lyrics Kai Hahto - drums
Jari Mäenpää - bass, guitars, keyboards, vocals
Additional info
Drums recorded at Tico Tico Studios in January 2004 by Ahti Kortelainen.
Everything else recorded at Sundi Coop Studios in April by Tuomo Valtonen.
Mixed at Sonic Pump Studios in May by Nino Laurenne.
Mastered at Finnvox Studios in May by Mika Jussila.
Produced by Jari Mäenpää.
All music and lyrics written by Jari Mäenpää.
Tracks 1, 2 and 5 are re-recordings of the tracks with the same names from the afore mentioned Winter Madness demo.
Jari Mäenpää had been working on the songs for this album for a long time. The songs were written in/between:
1. Beyond the Dark Sun (1998)
2. Winter Madness (2002)
3. Sleeping Stars (1995-2003)
4. Battle Against Time (2002-2003)
5. Death and the Healing (1996)
6. Starchild (2000-2003)
7. Beautiful Death (2003)
8. Sadness and Hate (1996)
Rating:
10
10
|
Rating: 10 |
Those readers who are familiar with the history of folk/power-metallers Ensiferum will doubtless be familiar with the history of Wintersun (i.e. that after walking out on Ensiferum, main man Jari Maënpäa formed the latter as a solo project). Speculation was rife in melodic metal circles - expectations for 'Wintersun' were largely high, though some suspected that Wintersun would be little more than Ensiferum Pt.II. In spite of the various similarities between this release and those of Maënpäa's former band (and make no mistake- they do exist), 'Wintersun' is very much an exceptional album, and will be reviewed as such. Read more ›› |
Rating:
9.4
9.4
|
Rating: 9.4 |
Ok, just to make it clear right at the beginning, I absolutely love/adore/worship (choose preferred term) this album. And I'm not alone, just check the number of fans in "Featured bands" section. So reviewing this album comes with great responsibility. Jari Mäenpää started as a part of Ensiferum. Great black folk metal band if you'd ask me. So why did he leave? He came up with some interesting not-so-Ensiferum-like ideas. So he started his own project with drummer Kai Hahto of Rotten Sound grinders. But where are the others? Where are synth, bass, second guitar players we can hear in there? Well by the time Wintersun was recorded Jari Mäenpää did everything except drums. Yes, everything except drums. Later on Jukka Koskinken of Norther and Teemu Mäntysaari joined to finish the lineup. Read more ›› |
Rating:
9.2
9.2
|
Rating: 9.2 |
Wintersun is the band Jari Mäenpää started after leaving Ensiferum. Some people dispise this band because they compare it to Ensiferum and say it's worse. Big mistake. This probably isn't as bombastic and catchy as Ensiferum, of course, but, what is Wintersun? I've seen them labelled as Melodic Death Metal, as well as Extreme Power Metal. The first thing that comes to my mind though, is Children Of Bodom. But Children Of Bodom they are not. They play somewhat epic, almost progressive Melodic Death/Black Metal with Folk influences. You may see it as less Folk-like, as only some riffs have Folk qualities, but more aggressive and complex Ensiferum. It's far more than just that however. Read more ›› |
Rating:
10
10
|
Rating: 10 |
When in 2004 Jari Mäenpää left Ensiferum, few people could imagine what impact that would leave on the metal community. Ensiferum got on pretty we'll, but what Jari did with his new band Wintersun was something quite unexpected. There are only few albums that deserve this kind of praise and hype, but I think this one is one of them. Read more ›› |
Guest review by
Andro Maximus
Andro Maximus
Rating:
7.5
7.5
|
Rating: 7.5 |
A most beautiful melancholic album cover, fast sweeping guitar solos, some fantastic melodies, and an epic, if slightly overproduced soundscape - Wintersun's debut album is clearly the result of a lot of passion and hard work and is obviously intended to be a monumental album. It is a shame then, that with so much going for it, Wintersun falls short of being the masterpiece that it is intended to be. Read more ›› |
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Comments page 5 / 5
Comments: 145
Visited by: 3360 users
| Ruchesko Posts: 435  |
Bit long-winded, but such musicianship! Too bad his ego's currently ricocheting round the asteroid belt.
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| JOPE OF STEELE Steelemeister Posts: 3333  |
IMO this one of those albums that sounds better on first listen, but gets worse after that. First it was 9-10, now 7-8, not sure how low it would drop if I keep listening. Gonna give it 8 for now, cuz it actually has few good tracks, on the other hand some tracks like Death & the Healing seem useless.
---- My vision is augmented
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| Auntie Sahar Drone Empress Posts: 5989  |
Do we seriously have five different reviews for this album on here? Good lord, I suspected these guys were pretty overrated already, but that just confirmed it
---- I am the Magician and the Exorcist. I am the axle of the wheel, and the cube in the circle. “Come unto me” is a foolish word: for it is I that go. ~ II. VII
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| Bad English Tage Westerlund Posts: 62008  |
Written by sonatoarctico on 20.11.2012 at 17:13 I agree its more from a to z , winter comes, and goes, even it stays longer here 
---- I stand whit Ukraine and Israel. They have right to defend own citizens. Stormtroopers of Death - "Speak English or Die"  I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
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| Mountain King K i K o Posts: 1361  |
After repeated listens, I started liking some tracks. A 7 for me.
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| Metren Dreadrealm Posts: 1410  |
My memory served me well. This is significantly better than Time I. Nice bombastic riffs, cool solos, tons of catchy melodies. Honestly, I am not really seeing the argument that this one is overrated. Everything Jari has done after this (excluding his other not-related-to-music shenanigans), sure, 100%, but this album still holds up. I guess whenever an album becomes an object of a ton of praise - warranted or otherwise, there's going to be a backlash. If Jari wasn't a greedy weirdo or a weirdy Greedo, I'd imagine we might have seen a backlash to the backlash too. EDIT: The Wintersun 2.0 mix of this album is lifeless-sounding crap. There are 10+ year old uploads by YouTube users of the original album that sound much better. Yikes.
---- My one-man project's Bandcamp with free downloads: https://dreadrealm.bandcamp.com/
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| Roman Doez Hallucigenia Posts: 972  |
Written by Milena on 26.01.2012 at 16:22 Almost in 2021 and the answer is yes 
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| F3ynman Nocturnal Bro Contributor Posts: 3024  |
Absolutely incredible work of metal-art! It has everything I could wish from an album called "Wintersun": chilling vocals, catchy melodies, epic winter lyrics... simply beautiful musicianship!  The style reminds me a lot of Children Of Bodom, actually  (I guess it's not too surprising, since they're both Finnish extreme power metal bands)My favorite tracks are Winter Madness, Death and the Healing, Sleeping Stars, and Battle Against Time
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| F3ynman Nocturnal Bro Contributor Posts: 3024 |
Written by JOPE OF STEELE on 06.09.2015 at 19:16 Why do you say Death and the Healing is useless? That main opening riff is so eargasmic!
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| Redel Moderator Posts: 2247  |
Written by F3ynman on 15.11.2021 at 17:08 Mine are Sadness and Hate, Death and the Healing, and Starchild (in descending order).
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| AndyMetalFreak A Nice Guy Contributor Posts: 5304  |
One of the best extreme power metal albums ever imo, not a single song I dislike, my favourite part on the album is actually when the opening track "Beyond The Dark Sun" merges into "Winter Madness", that's the perfect way to open such a brilliant album.
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| Alucard63 Posts: 9  |
There are too much power metal elements so it just bores me at some point. I always have this overdose effect with power metal... But I can't deny this is top notch in it's genre and really impressive, hence, this will be a 9 for me.
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| nonZero Posts: 1334  |
Took me a while to fully appreciate this album, but now I can understand why it gets such a high rating from so many people. A masterpiece of music, regardless of the controversy around Jari and the band. 9.6/10 for me - 'Winter Madness', 'Battle Against Time', 'Death And The Healing' and 'Sadness And Hate' are the standout tracks IMO. 'Starchild' and 'Beautiful Death' are a little weaker than the rest but are still great songs.
---- Top 500 Albums (ordered & rated) Top 200 Overlooked Albums (with genres) So I Heard You Like Wintersun... (Time II find new bands)
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| Rinbel Posts: 91  |
One of the most perfect albums ever written. Never gets old.
---- > Metal Detector 2022
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| F3ynman Nocturnal Bro Contributor Posts: 3024 |
Is this the album with the most reviews here on Metal Storm? I've never seen 5 reviews for one album before!
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| GODfatherHIMself Account deleted |
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| Furiator Posts: 30  |
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| 24emd Theory Snob Posts: 1079  |
Good album, some awesome tracks, but finishes feeling underwhelmed, fairly anti-climactic.
---- "I am too stupid to be human, and I lack common sense." - Proverbs 30:2 "Music? Well, it's just entertainment, folks!" - Devin Townsend Best 2024 Albums
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| Kvothe Posts: 88  |
I think this album is so legendary and mindblowing that it needs another review
---- Here, waiting very quiet right in front Valaritas, the door that hides the tomb.
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| Redel Moderator Posts: 2247 |
Written by Kvothe on 22.08.2022 at 02:32 ...or two. But please no rating lower than 9.2.
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| miekka18 Posts: 186  |
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| 24emd Theory Snob Posts: 1079 |
I agree this needs another review 
---- "I am too stupid to be human, and I lack common sense." - Proverbs 30:2 "Music? Well, it's just entertainment, folks!" - Devin Townsend Best 2024 Albums
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| 24emd Theory Snob Posts: 1079 |
"Death and the Healing" popped up on my playlist the other day and reminded me just how good this album's original production is. And on the songwriting and sound, it's sooo far ahead of its time it's absurd. Damn, I may actually like this album way more than my rating indicates, maybe I need to revisit it. I always forget that Wintersun are actually good.
---- "I am too stupid to be human, and I lack common sense." - Proverbs 30:2 "Music? Well, it's just entertainment, folks!" - Devin Townsend Best 2024 Albums
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| Boxcar Willy yr a kook Posts: 9155  |
Written by 24emd on 19.08.2024 at 09:03 Hahaha I get the same thought about Tool as well. I'm not super huge on this album as a whole, but Winter Madness rips.
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| 24emd Theory Snob Posts: 1079 |
FORMING UNIVERSES WITH OUR BAAAAAAALLLLSSS!! This album is awesome. And yeah Winter Madness is a masterpiece, especially that solo. I remember when I was 14 and first tried learning it on guitar to no avail.
---- "I am too stupid to be human, and I lack common sense." - Proverbs 30:2 "Music? Well, it's just entertainment, folks!" - Devin Townsend Best 2024 Albums
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