Band:	Wintersun
Album:	Time I
Style:	Extreme power metal
Release date:	October 19, 2012
Guest review by:	Bad English

Disc I
01. When Time Fades Away
02. Sons Of Winter And Stars
    1 - Rain Of Stars
    2 - Surrounded By Darkness
    3 - Journey Inside A Dream
    4 - Sons Of Winter And Stars
03. Land Of Snow And Sorrow
04. Darkness And Frost
05. Time
06. [hidden track] [Mediabook & Mailorder edition bonus]

Disc II [DVD] [Mediabook bonus]
+ Time I Live Rehearsals At Sonic Pump Studios
+ Licks & Tricks
+ Sons Of Winter And Stars - Project Demonstration
+ Photo Gallery

Disc III [instrumental CD] [Mailorder edition bonus]
01. When Time Fades Away
02. Sons Of Winter And Stars
    1 - Rain Of Stars
    2 - Surrounded By Darkness
    3 - Journey Inside A Dream
    4 - Sons Of Winter And Stars
03. Land Of Snow And Sorrow
04. Darkness And Frost
05. Time

Wintersun - is it real? Well, no, it isn't. We hardly see the sun; for four whole weeks, it never shines.

Allow me to copy the style of DerRozzengarten (the greatest reviewer ever), who knows how to write proper metaphors. Such music is never meant to explain northern life for people who have never actually walked on a frozen river or cleared snow from their car before work (I'm not taking a jab at the French, Dutch, or Danish, who usually overreact when they see 1 cm of snow). Imagine the pre-internet days: it's blizzard beasts, mid-winter, the sun never shines, just 22 hours of darkness and twilight in between. There is nothing to do, only good music, books, or finding a way to channel your creativity. Outside activities, aside from collecting firewood and cleaning snow? I don't think so (but wait a minute, Jari lives in the city anyway?). Anyway, the streets are dead and frozen, the horizon is dark, and night light is ablaze on the snow. All you can do is wait for spring and then summer to arrive slowly. I've done it all my life, still do, and we all did. It's typical northern madness!

Musically, this is a happy album, giving us dreams and hopes about the snow melting one day. It's simply like a journey, and a good one, because the lyrics and singing fit well into the music; somehow it talks to you and you're taken away, kidnapped by music. The guitars and keyboards are wonderfully arranged. I never really cared for this particular type of singing, but clean vocals always can bring more emotions into music, and to me, music without emotions is boring and worthless, just some insane drumming that nobody will remember.

Jari's singing is good in that even without knowing the lyrics already you can clearly hear what he sings and you can follow along. The lyrics and song titles are wholly Scandinavian. You just exist in winter, dream about summer, and watch how the time slips away and you are lost in time. You wake up and think, "Wait a second. I was on holiday for 17 years of wasted youth, and where am I now?" To me, it seems that this is a one-man band, because Jari Mäenpää is the main man overall; the rest just play what they are supposed to.

One good thing about this album is that it came out eight years after the first one. That's good; no rush. Velvet Revolver's first album, Contraband, was brilliant, but the next one, Libertad, was pure shit made by various demands and money ruined a deal whit a divel. I don't see such things here. It's good that Wintersun has never been such a big live band; live music brings money, but we have way too many live events with the same bands and setlists around, which makes things boring in my opinion.

The negative part of this album is that it doesn't quite fit the winter night life as well as the first album does.