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Winterborn: Farewell To Saints

Why it's taken so long for Massacre Records to decide to release Farewell To Saints in Europe I'm not sure. However Japanese metal fans got the chance to own this album in 2008, so the obvious question is was it worth the wait?

Kicking in with atmospheric guitars and a brooding bass line, opener "Black Rain" really bursts into life, a smart riff and galloping kick drums raising the spirits before Jukka Hanninen's dynamic keyboards lifts the song beyond the usual power metal fare. In fact throughout the whole album Hanninen adds just enough to the songs to keep them from becoming generic, offering up interesting counterpoints to the excellent guitar playing of Pasi Vapola and Antti Hokkala; giving the music more grandiose melody than most Heavy/Power Metal acts aim for in the process. The addition of second guitarist Hokkala has paid dividends as it allows the instrumental section on the album to really stretch out, but with added power and precision. Hokkala is not the only change in the Winterborn ranks since their debut release Cold Reality, Janne Suvanto who played bass on the first disc and was with the band since their days as covers band Mean Machine, being replaced by Pasi Kauppinen who puts in a rock solid performance. Drummer Rami Heikkila has also moved on but not until he had already recorded his parts for the album. His replacement behind the kit is Lauri Bexar.

"Chaos Dwells Within" ups the pace without compromising the intricacy and musical interplay, vocalist Teemu Koskela given the opportunity to shine, with his raw approach fitting the music perfectly. "Seven Deadly Sins" greets you with some excellent vocal harmonies and shows a more straight ahead melodic side to Winterborn's approach. It's this ability to continually change gears throughout the album that makes Farewell To Saints hold the attention. Illustrating this perfectly is the beautiful "Overture 1939", which almost belongs in Opeth's more contemplative moments, as it leads into the huge riffs and keyboard mayhem of "Winter War", an excellent account of the Finland – Soviet Union war of 1939 where a vastly outnumbered Finnish force held off the might of the Red Army. With a short piece of narration along with exploding bombs and machine gun fire running through the track it's one of the album highlights. In fact it's when Winterborn stretch themselves in this way that they really shine. Closing track "Another World" also has that epic feel, clocking in at over ten minutes, its slow build is reminiscent of Nightwish in places and once more Koskela's powerful voice raises the impact of the music. He carries off the tricky feat of showing his vocal influences without ever mimicking. At times you can hear traces of Roy Khan, David Coverdale, Bob Cately, Tony Martin or even a gruffer Geoff Tate among others. It's that versatility and his knack of switching from one style to another even within one track that makes Koskela such an intriguing proposition.

Not everything quite hits the mark though as "Emptiness Inside" is too close to metal by numbers to hold the attention, the low key instrumental passages almost sounding like a "scary" TV movie soundtrack. The song itself is well played and structured however it's one of the few moments where they veer too close to paying homage to the likes of Kamelot or Queensryche. However I'm glad to say the missteps are far outweighed by bombastic fist punching riffs, and with choruses as catchy and insistent as "Land Of The Free", which I've found myself singing over and over since I got Farewell To Saints, there's much more to get excited about here than to complain over.

Considering Farewell To Saints is only Winterborn's second album it really is quite impressive and if they continue to write epic, catchy tracks as they have here, then it may only be a matter of time before they are viewed as one of the big boys.


Track Listing
1. Black Rain
2. Chaos Dwells Within
3. Seven Deadly Sins
4. Overture 1939
5. The Winter War
6. The Land Of The Free
7. Emptiness Inside
8. Nightfall Symphony
9. Last Man Standing
10. Another World

Added: May 25th 2009
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Winterborn on facebook
Hits: 1553
Language: english

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