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WINTERFYLLETH "The Unyielding Season"
WINTERFYLLETH "The Unyielding Season"
By Dr. Abner Mality
In the past, the covers of WINTERFYLLETH showed magnificent natural vistas, usually snowy mountains or rolling hills. It cannot be without meaning that "The Unyielding Season" shows a raging forest fire. There is no better metaphor for what is happening to our heritage and our entire planet today.
These Englishmen have always taken a prideful stand for honor and history and that hasn't changed at all here. This album is a call to resist the commercialized mechanization creeping across the land. As always, the music is rooted in majestic black metal. The opening songs here are some of the fastest, most soaring metal WINTERFYLLETH has composed...their sound is instantly identifiable, there's nothing cookie cutter about it. "Heroes of a Hundred Fields" and "A Hollow Existence" bristle with defiance.
Starting with the title track, the pace slows and a sad melody arises. This track is a powerful lament. Even the acoustic instrumentals, "Unspoken Elegy" and "Where Dreams Once Grew", are achingly beautiful and better yet, they don't outstay their welcome.The album ends with a faithful cover of PARADISE LOST's "Enchantment" which emphasizes the piano work of Mark Deeks, whose subtle synth work embellishes the music but never overpowers the guitars.
Special attention should be paid to the lyrics. This is real poetry in the classic tradition, full of pride, anger and longing but never becoming maudlin. Nine albums in and WINTERFYLLETH is as good as this kind of folk-influenced black metal gets.
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