Borknagar - Winter Thrice - review
Borknagar - Winter Thrice - review
Tracklist
01. The Rhymes Of The Mountain02. Winter Thrice
03. Cold Runs The River
04. Panorama
05. When Chaos Calls
06. Erodent
07. Noctilucent
08. Terminus
09. Dominant Winds
A review by
corrupt January 23, 2016
In the last ten years, Borknagar's sound has simmered down to a unique blend of avant-garde, black, and symphonic metal. The last two albums have seen Lazare introduce more of his characteristic flat-toned vocals into the mix while ICS Vortex made a careful return to the band on a song or two on the latest few albums. The result is an entertaining vocal mix between Solefald, Age Of Silence, Arcturus, Vintersorg, and ICS Vortex's solo project. This continues on Winter Thrice, with the addition of backing vocals by Garm.
As expected, most of these songs bear a distinct Øystein G. Brun signature. A lot of the timings, the breaks, the riffs and the overall arrangement are very reminiscent of "the" Borknagar sound we know of late. Fans of Universal and Urd will immediately feel at home here, musically and production-wise. Vintersorg's heavy Swedish accent provides the trademark modulating vowels that have defined Borknagar's vocals since Empiricism and stand in a warm contrast to Lazare's creepy, impassive, narrative vocals. Contrary to previous releases, however, the band found a way to incorporate all four singers into the same mix this time. I do feel a certain sensation when the vocals are handed from Garm to Vintersorg over to masterfully staged climax moments by Vortex, even though both Garm and Vortex only have very few of these moments. Musically there aren't any surprises, even though the sheer amount of different elements make the album a hard one to digest at first. Winter Thrice is not an instant-gratification album but one whose joys unravel carefully, bit by bit, with each spin. It rewards fans of the scene with playful winks at the other bands of Borknagar's members and plays with subtle hints to previous releases, all well-hidden under a thick veil of sound and vocals.
It is this excess of influences, however, that I consider Winter Thrice's greatest problem even though I have always had the utmost respect for the band and their musical development. Borknagar have boldly developed a style that is neither black nor symphonic in its own right but advances into these and other musical territories with a sense of entitlement that is often irritating for genre-purists. Yet I feel - on this record more than ever - that none of these influences is given enough room to develop within its new ecosystem. Without a doubt these are excellent musicians who manage incorporate a broad musical range of into their music. But the load of different instruments and singers and the overall monotonously warm and soft sound do not provide enough edges to jab a knee on. And I want that from a good record. Songs like "Frostrite" and "The Earthling" from its predecessor were careful experiments, giving the album more of the sonic singularity that Winter Thrice definitely lacks. I do get my goosebumps when I listen to the songs, but they fail to captivate me much beyond their duration.
Winter Thrice is an excellent album, without a doubt. The fact that all of Borknagar's singers of two decades come together on a single release makes it worth your while. Having had a somewhat stable lineup for three albums, the band try a few, very welcome new things here. But much like after Universal and Urd I feel like their sound would profit from Lazare doing more vocals and less keyboards. Vintersorg, on the other hand, does magnificent growls that Borknagar's sound could use more of. The combination of singers overall is a great element here that I hope we will see more of in the future. Now if only the band dared to give us an edge, some contrast, an album hard to digest for complexity and not magnitude, I'm certain we would see another milestone release. And who knows, maybe that milestone leads the way for another 20 great years of Borknagar.
Written by corrupt | January 23, 2016
Comments
 Posts: 64500 |
Posts: 64500
Great review and I agree about style , not black, not symphonic, own style, creation , band wont be so bif if they would play pure BM as in 1th one
---- 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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Nothing they released has ever topped the olden domain imo. but garm doing guest vocals makes me excited for this album. btw vintersorg is swedish
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Posts: 4336 Written by roeder on 23.01.2016 at 23:09 That's a good point, actually. Thanks 
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Posts: 64500 Written by roeder on 23.01.2016 at 23:09 from Skellefteå ---  pretty close ehhhh from me
---- 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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Posts: 389
Just gave this a spin, and I agree with a lot of what the reviewer said. I've always had a strong distaste for Vintersorg's clean vocals, and I'm pleased to have the other guys do them instead. Lazare brings some Solefald sounding moments on the record, and that's quite alright by me.
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Posts: 4336 Written by Skøllgrim on 24.01.2016 at 00:24 Probably the right point to say once more that Age Of Silence's Acceleration is a must-listen for fans of Lazare. The whole album is one of the most brillliant and overlooked releases of the Norwegian avant-garde scene. If you're into Lazare's vocals in Solefald and on this album look at that next
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Posts: 1342 Written by corrupt on 24.01.2016 at 00:36 Good advice. I couldn't agree more.
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Posts: 389 Written by corrupt on 24.01.2016 at 00:36 I have already heard Age of Silence, but thanks for the heads up anyway.
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Posts: 4336 Written by poison-evie on 25.01.2016 at 19:18 Why thank you very much 
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I've listened to this several times on Bandcamp & would have to agree with the overall assessment....good album that could have been great. Still ordered it as I still enjoy what I hear overall. Once you stop wishing for what you "think" an album should be & just take it for what it is, then you can honestly come to a conclusion of how good it is (or isn't). By & large I have not been a huge fan of this band but have always liked what i've heard, so if any one has any suggestions on other albums for me to explore, please advise. I do have Urd & thought that album was brilliant.
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Posts: 4336 Written by FelixtheMetalcat on 30.01.2016 at 16:08 Empiricism is still widely regarded as their best album of the Vintersorg era and The Olden Domain of the Vortex era. "Widely regarded" of course means "As far as I can assess". And of course you're right saying you shouldn't approach an album with too much expectation. I tried not to, but it does stand in context of the band's discography. I find myself looking for musical development by reflex. That doesn't mean it'll factor into the final score though.
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Posts: 4336 Written by D. Monique on 31.01.2016 at 00:41 Right. My mistake. My head wrote Vortex, when I wanted to say Garm 
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