Wintersun – Time II
Wintersun – Time II
Nuclear Blast
Release Date: 30/08/2024
Running Time: 48:37
Review by Rory Bentley
10/10
One of my favourite phrases, and one that I try and live by is “perfect is the enemy of done”. It’s a simple concept, the idea that perfectionism, though an admirable quality in some respects, can often amount to a big pile of fuck all if you get so bogged down in the details of a task that you fail to complete it. It’s something that has plagued many a musician and artist, probably since our Neanderthal ancestors agonised over the finer points of a wooly mammoth painting on a cave wall right up to the modern day where a pre-reunion Axl Rose got through more session musicians and rewrites than I’ve had hot dinners trying to finish “Chinese Democracy”. But at some point you’ve either got to shit or get off the pot.
Wintersun’s productivity since their conception by genius/total nutcase Jari Mäenpää 20 years ago (yes 20 fucking years) has made Tool look like Devin Townsend. At the time of writing the band currently have 3 studio albums to their name, with this fourth offering being the second part of a project that originally dropped in 2012, itself embroiled in maddening delays. The story of the “Time” project and how we got to this point is infuriating, frustrating, scandalous and totally bonkers. We honestly don’t have time to get into it, but the arrival of “Time II” comes with more baggage than my wife packing for a holiday, and no small amount of Ill will from many corners of the Metal universe.
The question must be posed, as it was with “Chinese Democracy”, Kate Bush’s “Ariel” and Tool’s “Fear Innoculum”- can something with such an agonising, infuriatingly convoluted gestation period ever truly live up to the hype? After spending a week in the company of “Time II” I don’t have an answer right now. What I can tell you is the album is utterly incredible.
For the uninitiated, Wintersun’s sound is a mixture of Symphonic, Folk, Power, Death and Black Metal so bombastic, maximalist and over the top that they make Nightwish sound like Minor Threat. The word ‘epic’ gets thrown around far too liberally in music journalism, but there is no band in Metal that embodies this adjective more than Wintersun, and particularly the “Time” project.
One of the multitude of stupid reasons why we’ve had to wait so long for this sequel is that there wasn’t a hard drive available outside of the military that could hold the head spinning amount of tracks that Jari required to realise his preposterous vision. Having now heard the album in its entirety this excuse seems kind of reasonable. After a beautiful, cinematic intro courtesy of the oriental-tinged ‘Fields of Snow’, we get hit with some of the most mind-blowing, celestial, bombastic Heavy Metal ever committed to record. ‘The Way of the Fire’ is an unreal, majestic and chaotic journey through scorching tremolo guitars, towering vocals and ferocious blast beats. Jari has always had a galaxy-brained knack of throwing a billion things together in these sprawling compositions while having a cohesive motif that sticks with the listener, and this song is no different. The guitar solos in particular here are absolutely astonishing as they fuse virtuosity with melodic, compositional nouse, making Jari’s decision to delegate guitar duties live even more head-scratching. The guy’s a fretboard wizard and no mistake.
After violently yeeting more kitchen sinks at you than one could find in IKEA, the comparatively restrained ‘One With The Shadows’ offers something of a palate cleanser with a jaunty, swaying semi-ballad. The song recalls the leaner compositional approach of the band’s debut, with glorious melodies wrapped in a frosty elegance by lush keys and Jari’s impassioned croon. It still sounds like Hans Zimmer after doing all the beak in the bar, but it’s a lot easier to digest than the more overblown compositions elsewhere.
After a setup that sounds like David Gilmore playing with a car battery shoved up his arse courtesy of the serene ‘Ominous Clouds’, things go bananas again on ‘Storm’. Probably the most out and out heavy song on here, it still bristles with delicate melodies and the kind of thunderstorm effects that my wife normally gets Alexa to play so she can sleep through my snoring. To me the song in many ways feels like the successor to ‘Eternal Darkness’ from ‘The Forest Seasons’ album, which I always felt went a little too far into the more extreme end of things without giving that triumphant Wintersun feel that I can’t get anywhere else. At this point I noticed that the album felt a little more consistent than its predecessor, which understandably takes a dip after ‘Sons of Winter and Stars’, cos it’s.. y’know, in with a shout for the greatest Heavy Metal song of all time.
This observation is confirmed when Wintersun totally nails the landing with the gorgeous, breathtaking ‘Silver Leaves’. Like ‘One With The Shadows’, the song is best described as a ballad, however it is more an epic summation of everything that has gone into this bonkers, maddening and downright sublime project as it touched on every aspect. From the wistful lyrics and soulful oriental vocal melodies, to the ethnic instrumentation and glorious guitar solos it is a total triumph. The wistful lyrics feel like the closing credits of an epic fantasy movie, like Lord of the Rings if Peter Jackson was also a bit of a Weeb. Despite all of the justified cynicism I had about the album, I’m totally blown away by the pure magical feeling that the band brings out.
Who the fuck knows if this decade-spanning work of ridiculous, twisted genius will be viewed as worth the wait – I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fucking thing now! But one thing I do know is that this has album of the year written all over it for me. I guess good things do come to those who wait.
TRACKLISTING:
01. Fields Of Snow
02. The Way Of The Fire
03. One With The Shadows
04. Ominous Clouds
05. Storm
06. Silver Leaves
LINE-UP:
Jari Mäenpää- vocals, guitars, keyboards, songwriting
Kai Hahto- drums
Teemu Mäntysaari- guitar
Jukka Koskinen- bass
LINKS:
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