Every once in a while some friends and I will get together, buy some booze and enjoy some metal together. A few months ago we were doing just that and somehow or another it lead to a friend pulling out his old VHS tapes, one in particular that happened to be Nuclear Blast's, 'Death is Just the Beginning,' which features Winter's video for, 'Servants of the Warsmen.' Seeing the video reminded me that I've known the bands name forever, but never heard them, and then just a few days later I was talking to a pal o' mine and Winter came up, his appreciation for the band mostly and how he actually named his daughter Winter because of this band. I knew it was time to finally get my hands on this one.Formed around '88 in New York City, Winter are largely seen as the innovators of the doom/death metal genre, which would explode a few years down the road with bands like Anathema, My Dying Bride, Paradise Lost and Katatonia, but by then Winter had already broken up. Through seven songs and forty six minutes of music, Winter takes the listener on a plodding, depraved, miserable death metal journey unlike anything else at its time. Winter to me sounds like the slowest parts of Autopsy, but brought to a crawling pace and torn with misery and apathy for life. Heavier, taller and thicker than any cathedral, this insane and claustrophobic recording is simply crushing. Chunky throbbing riff after riff, ultra slow percussion, the occasional backing and rather haunting sounding keyboards and low guttural vocals guide you through this one while samples and random creepy noise arise here and there too to add to the overall effect.
Its hard to pick a favorite, because to me no single song really stands outs, but rather the whole album feels like one long song that should be played from start to finish. That might sound weird, but its just one of those albums you throw on when you're feeling out of it or when the summer heat creeps in on you too much and you need to cool things down. The atmosphere is extremely cold and indescribable, but in a way it resembles some sort of bleak future where everything is covered in snow, mutants walk the street and the weight of the world is on your shoulders and trampling you.
By '92, Winter was already finished and like many bands many listeners didn't even discover them until Nuclear Blast re-released the album for European listeners that same year. But, the legend grew, and so did the fans and by today the albums been re-released four times, personally I own the '11 version from Southern Lord, which features a large booklet of old flyers as well as an interesting bio, though no lyrics were included.
'Into Darkness' is not an easy album to get into, simply because its not as accessible or catchy as other early death/doom records, but few pioneering efforts ever are. On the other hand if you admire the genre, pick this one up and see how and where it all began.
Awesome! I can't BELIEVE you posted a write-up on Winter! I remember when I first heard this album, my friend and I were driving with the tape playing loud. As time passed, we noticed that both of us had massive U-shaped frowns adorning our ugly faces as we jammed to the album. We cracked up, realizing that these songs, as awesome as they are, have that effect on you. You must go all frown-face when blasting Winter's music.
ReplyDeleteTotally. Yeah, its like just a total mood killer. I mean, death/doom normally has that effect, but this one does it just a bit more than the others. Strange that I did review it too, since I've been generally in a good mood lately. Thought about waiting until winter to review it, but what the heck.
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