Band:	Midvinter
Album:	At The Sight Of The Apocalypse Dragon
Style:	Black metal
Release date:	March 25, 1997
A review by:	Lucas

01. Dödfödd
02. All Things To End Are Made
03. Moonbound
04. Hope Rides On Devil Wings
05. Dreamslave
06. Nocticula In Aeternum / Of Night Primeval
07. Ett Liv Förnekat
08. De Vises Hymn

Midvinter At The Sight Of The Apocalypse Dragon was originally released in '97, but Frostscald Records found it necessary to re-release it last year. I had never heard of the band before so I don't know anything about the unavailability of At The Sight..., but now it's easily available again.

At The Sight Of The Apocalypse Dragon is a very melodic, easy-to-access Black metal album and that's definitely not a bad thing. Despite the incredibly goofy album cover, it's quite enjoyable. It contains a lot of very 'likeable' elements, from easy-going background synthesizers to epic song structures and a lot of melodic guitar work. Midvinter combines Immortal-esque Black metal with Heavy metal and Iron Maiden-ish melodies and solos, so you should know by now what you're in for.

There are a few downsides though. The drums are very generic and boring. It's basically bam-bam-bam-bam-bam-bam-bam-bam and.....bam-bam-bam-bam ad infinitum. Meh. It takes much away from the good synth/guitar sections. And then there are the clean vocals, which are neither a plus nor a minus. They're just there.

In conclusion, there are upsides and downsides to this album. It's only a debut album though, so flaws are excused. Apparently the band broke up after this album but then got back together, so maybe we'll see a new album some day. My advice for now is: At The Heart is far from a must. If they are able to improve themselves, the new album should be quite decent. I'll wait for that one.