Time (Part I)

Okay, with that Kamelot review up, time for the other long-awaited album I received that week.

Wintersun's first, self-titled album has been a favorite for melodeath fans for years, all of whom have eagerly (and patiently) awaited Jari Mäenpää's second creation, the very aptly-named Time. Finally, six years in the making and eight after the first album, the Finnish Chinese Democracy is here (the first half of it, at least).

Wintersun was an unprecedented experiment that seamlessly blended the genres of melodic death metal, black metal, power metal, and numerous others. As diverse as it was, Time I completely blows it out of the water, as the alphabet soup of genres I've tagged it with shows. This album took six years to make and sounds like it's been sent back from the distant future. Part of the reason for the delay was that Jari had to wait for computers to become powerful enough for him to produce it. The epic songs apparently have upwards of 200 tracks. The insane attention to production and detail on this album make comparing it with other metal like comparing St. Peter's to my church's cool, but relatively plain hundred-year-old Swedish-built building. Let me assure you that Time I does not disappoint.

One unexpected turn this album takes is its use of Japanese folk influences, which are nowhere more evident than in the instrumental intro track, "When Time Fades Away". Its gently rolling melodies interweave more standard synths and orchestration with beautiful strings seemingly inspired by Japanese folk music for a song that seems to ebb and flow like swirling, falling snow. It creates a gradually thickening atmosphere of myth and wonder that fits the album's crazy-awesome psychedelic graphic design perfectly.

And then it transitions seamlessly into the first epic, "Sons of Winter and Stars". This 13-minute song is amazing. If Wintersun had just released it and called it the new album they'd been working on for six years, I'd only have been slightly disappointed. This song is entire dimensions beyond anything I have heard from Finland in the past, even on Wintersun. It is broken into four parts for easier processing:
Rain of Stars: After the soft melody of the intro track continues for about half a minute, it is suddenly eclipsed by a huge guitar fanfare, which is quickly replaced by an even louder torrent of blast beats and soaring orchestrated horns. It is at this point that you realize and fully appreciate how much a band can advance in six years. The whole first part is almost like an anthem or invocation for the rest of the song, with a repeating call to "Rise!".
Surrounded by Darkness: Less insane than the first part but still fascinating. It is largely built around a quick, steady synchronized guitar/bass drum riffing pattern with synth and orchestral harmonies prominent over it. It's the most progressive-metal part of the album and sounds very futuristic.
Journey Inside a Dream: As the last chord of part II fades out, it is replaced by a lone acoustic guitar. This part is a quieter interlude, the calm before the storm; all the vocals in this part are clean and it is surprisingly close and personal after the grandeur of the first two parts. The end of this part almost sounds like a lullaby with twinkling synths and ethereal strings providing the only instrumentation/ It provides a nice breather and perfect contrast to the final part...
Sons of Winter and Stars: I'll just skip right to the hyperbole, because all of it is fully deserved. Part IV is the single most epically, over-the-top awesome thing I have heard in any metal song, ever. The lyrics approach DragonForce-like levels of narm/awesomeness and surpasses even Rhapsody of Fire in sheer scale and bombast. Especially the last repetition of the chorus with the whole band singing choral vocals. For anyone with a soul, this is pure ecstasy. Not recommended for anyone with a heart condition.
All told, "Sons of Winter and Stars" is a perfect epic, masterfully composed, amazing to listen to, like nothing I've ever heard before. Probably one of my favorite songs of all time.

The next song, "Land of Snow and Sorrow", is relatively short at eight and a half minutes and, for a welcome breather, is considerably slower and less intense. Like "Sleeping Stars" on Wintersun's first album, it flirts with doom metal, built largely around a slow, grinding, climbing riff that sounds equal parts snow and water, with prominent synth harmonies echoing overhead. It evokes the image of a vast, desolate, snowbound expanse. It is considerably overshadowed by the much more exciting "Sons of Winter and Stars", but is still a strong song in its own right, better than "Sleeping Stars".

Before the second epic is another instrumental prelude, "Darkness and Frost". Considerably less organic and more spacey than the first one, it is largely a cool solo for plucked strings (can't tell which of the voices is the guitar) with a healthy amount of "raygun"-type synths that help create a picture of swirling snow.

And then the second epic, "Time", continues some of the musical themes of the prelude in metal fashion. This song kind of has two "modes" it switches between, each with its own chorus about time: a slower, majestic pacing which is the continuation of the prelude, and a faster, louder 3-time rhythm more similar to something in "Sons of Winter and Stars". Overall, "Time" has more of a synthesized, almost futuristic feel to "Sons of Winter and Stars"' symphonic metal sound, notwithstanding the moment of epic at around 6 minutes in just before the guitar solo and switch back to the slower mode. Then it switches back to the faster mode for the epic climax, with repeated invocations of "TIME/Fades away!" just before everything fades away for a final piano solo, leading into an ambient outro similar to the album's beginning.

If I hadn't made it clear already, Time I is amazing. Simply amazing. The band shows the kind of development you'd expect from six years of touring and studio work. For one, the band has doubled in size, now boasting a dedicated guitarist and bassist, and allowing Jari to focus more on singing and keyboards. His singing in both styles has improved noticeably, allowing the vocals on Time I to share center stage with the amazing instrumentation. Completely expectedly, the production is top-notch; the album is a real treat to listen to on my audiophile-quality setup. It takes the disparate elements that Wintersun played with--melodeath speed and intensity, Jari's epic viking metal roots, synthesizers everywhere, and surreal winter-inspired lyrics--and flawlessly combines them into some truly glorious metal. And it adds a few new surprises, like the blend of European and Asian styles of folk music and the vastly increased emphasis on orchestral parts--both of which, in my book, are improvements.

If Jari had kept Time as one album, it would be objectively perfect, by far better than Wintersun, the best album of 2012 (or 2013), and one of my favorite albums of all time. As it is, the only, only problem with Time I is that there isn't more of it; it clocks in at just 40 minutes with five tracks. Get this album. It was completely worth the wait. Get it now.

One more time...

WE ARE THE SONS OF WINTER AND STARS
WE'VE COME FROM AFAR BEYOND TIME
FOREVER THE FIRE BURNS IN OUR HEARTS
OUR WORLD SHALL NEVER DIE!
IN THE ARMS OF THE WIND WE RIDE 'TILL DAWN
AS THE WAVES OF THE OCEAN GRIND SO STRONG
WE WANDER THE STARS UNTIL WE'RE GONE
OUR FATE IS SEALED BY ETERNAL SUN!