Band:	Vinterland
Album:	Welcome My Last Chapter
Style:	Melodic black metal
Release date:	September 1996
Guest review by:	Ch'ti

01. Our Dawn Of Glory
02. I'm Another In The Night
03. So Far Beyond... (The Great Vastforest)
04. A Castle So Crystal Clear
05. As I Behold The Dying Sun
06. Vinterskogen
07. Still The Night Is Awake
08. A Vinter Breeze
09. Wings Of Sorrow
10. Freezing Moon [Mayhem cover] [limited edition bonus]

Another band that releases only one album and disappears so soon. The problem is that when they release a good album, their disappearance is all the more tragic.

Vinterland achieved much more with a single album than many other bands with a much larger discography. Indeed, with Welcome My Last Chapter, the band clearly shows us what a good black metal album from the 90s looks like.

Right from the start of the album, one notices the poor production of the music, a trademark at the time. When the bass drum sounds like a soccer ball when you kick it, you know you're dealing with black metal. We can say that that's part of the genre's charm, but I've never been a big fan of bad productions. Still, I find that the production does have one positive outcome: it highlights the vocalist. In this album, it sounds like the singer has torn his voice out, conveying raw, palpable emotions to the audience.

There is clearly a lot of effort that went into the guitar playing, offering melancholic riffs that perfectly follow the raspy vocals and allow the album to sound cohesive. As the album progresses, we find ourselves entangled in a dark and frozen universe, in which a man is nearing his end. This image was already announced to us from the beginning with the title of the album: Welcome My Last Chapter.

The track "Wings Of Sorrow" is a very good conclusion to the album. After numerous descriptions about death, in the end, the vocalist expresses his own message: "Let the night obscure the forest to black, so the lantern of my heart can end". This simple yet elegant statement allows the listener to finish this album in a satisfied way.

The rating I gave this album may seem low, but I'm just not a fan of 90s black metal. You are free to see this as the shaky tastes of a pessimist at heart. Nevertheless, this album is a refined and accomplished work, taking the listener on an immersive listening experience. If you appreciate black metal at all, you can't miss Welcome My Last Chapter.