Ok, Vintersorg is born in Sweden, but the band is Norwegian, so, you get the picture. Now that I explained the title, let’s talk about the actual music.
First, about the vocal lineup. Since this is their 20 years anniversary record their first vocalist has returned as a guest. And the guy is no other than bloody Garm ( or Kristoffer Rygg, which is his everyday name), dude that founded Ulver, one of the quintessential black metal bands, who sang on two best Arcturus albums, and was a lead singer on the first Borknagar record. And even though he can be heard in just a couple of songs, his voice is a helluva surprise, and listening to his warm, calming, and powerful voice again on a metal record is a pure bliss. Aside from him, vocal duties are equally allocated between Vintersorg and ICS Vortex, and they are doing their job flawlessly making Winter Thrice an album with one of the strongest vocal lineup in the history of Black Metal.
But as I said in some of my previous reviews, if the music isn’t on par with the voice, all hard work can be binned. And the instrumental part of this juggernaut does not disappoint. Bombastic, bigger than life arrangements, progressive thread that’s present in every song, and symphonic and folk influences that coat the compositions with a layer of gold, make this record the best recording of Borknagar ever since Empiricism (and that album is 15 years old, just so you know) and one of the best Black metal releases in recent years.
Epicness present in Rhymes of The Mountain is enthralling, with complex song structure and full assault from every playing weapon, entanglement of clean and shriek vocals, and classical melodies, altogether making a phenomenal result. The Garm-infused Winter Thrice is probably the best song on the album (can’t decide between it and the phenomenal Terminus), with progressive guitars and a couple of tempo changes.
The most original song on the album is probably Panorama. It has that Colossus vibe in it, maybe because of ICS Vortex who’s showing his signing abilities in their fullest, or because of the fantastic keyboard solo that is reminiscent of the 80’s glam rock near the end of it. Terminus, the last song on the album is a progressive monster, perfectly blending black, folk, sympho, and progressive parts into one menacing package. You have to hear it in order to realize how grand it is.
There are a couple of things that could be better. More clean vocals, for instance. Yeah, it sound weird to ask for that on a BM record, but vocalists are just too good when singing cleans, but, as I know, only Vintersorg is doing shrieks and screams, so the talent from Garm and ICS Vortex is wasted because those two should’ve had more space to show us how virtuous they are (but, on the other hand, Garm is just a guest vocalist, to be honest). Another thing is a couple of filler songs that just don’t belong here. When Chaos Calls is not so bad, but is just too different to be considered an equal part of the album. And Noctilucent just feels unfinished, like they wrote half of the song, realized that recording starts tomorrow and that there is no time to finish it.
All in all Winter Thrice is one grand record and should be listened by everyone who’s into this kind of music. We already have a contender for metal AOTY, and I’m so excited to see what else 2016 will offer us next.
