Two years after stunning fans with The Hallowing of Heirdom, UK black metal favorites Winterfylleth return with one of the year’s most memorable records.
If you love any genre of music long enough, you begin to believe as if you’ve heard everything that sound has to offer. After all, there are only so many notes, chord progressions, and tunings to explore. The key to creating great music in the modern era is how you make familiar things feel new once again, and there are few artists in the black metal scene who are doing that as well as the UK’s Winterfylleth.
That information is nothing new. The members of Winterfylleth have spent the past twelve years building their careers by continually pushing the boundaries of black metal. They are one of the few bands in the genre with a steadfast determination to evolve, and they’re willing to risk everything in that pursuit. From concept records to releases featuring a stripped-down sound, Winterfylleth exists to explore the outer limits of metal with wide eyes and open minds.
On their latest studio album, The Reckoning Dawn, Winterfylleth combines the heaviest elements of metal to create an all-encompassing ode to chaos. The album plays like an epic score to a brutal battle happening in some faraway land that listeners witness as they ride across the sky atop a black steed alongside the other horseman of the apocalypse. The emotions of pain and confusion in the songs are unstoppable, but the perspective is fresh and invigorating. You feel stronger for experiencing the music Winterfylleth wants to share, and that strength grows exponentially with each subsequent spin.
Take “A Greatness Undone,” for example. The track starts at a breakneck speed and builds into a calamitous fury of drums and guttural growls that feel larger than life. Then, just as you’re beginning to wrap your head around the track, a riff comes in that lifts the song into another, a somehow higher plane of existence. It’s as close to an out of body experience that sound can provide, and it’s available wherever you listen to music.
The Reckoning Dawn is such a strong record that fans may be left wondering what else Winterfylleth can accomplish with their career. The band has outdone themselves with this album. From the thunderous blast beats and fiery riffs to the ferocious vocals detailing the eternal search for meaning in a world where the truth is often stranger than fiction, Winterfylleth has showcased their massive talent in a manner that is likely to leave you in awe. Other bands will see this album as the new bar for creativity and artistic precision, and they will be right. A new dawn is breaking, and Winterfylleth is the sun that will guide the next generation of black metal apprentices.
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