WINTERFYLLETH - THE UNYIELDING SEASON

Winterfylleth. One of the finest black metal exports the UK has produced. A career that’s spanned well over a decade and has generated 9 studio albums, as well as countless tours across Europe, and multiple festival appearances. With a rich European feel to their sound, it’s always remarkable to think that they’re based in very close proximity to my hometown of Manchester! Now that they've signed to Napalm Records, “The Unyielding Season” is their debut record on the label, and how excited we are to check this out…

“The Unyielding Season” gets off to a blistering start with ‘Heroes Of A Hundred Fields’! Alongside ‘Perdition's Flames’, both offer a sound and vibe similar to their older work, around the time of “The Divination Of Antiquity”. Simon holds down a relentless pace from behind the drums, locking in with the heartthrob and pulse of the band, bassist Mark Doyle. The melodic attack comes in the shape of Chris and Russell’s guitar tandem, whilst Chris also holds down lead vocal duties with his usual yet no less impressively fierce growls and shrieks. ‘The Unyielding Season’ provides a greater showcase for his vocal ability, with the pace slowed down and his talent on full display. Though the aforementioned older sound has been enhanced to no end by Mark Deeks, adding an epic symphonic feel we didn’t know we needed but are more the happier for having. 

Continuing in this vein of new additions, Winterfylleth have certainly ventured down new avenues and experimented with new sounds. Take exhibit A: ‘Echoes In The After’. This has a much darker undertone than we've heard from the band since…since…well, perhaps ever! Dark, fear inducing, listen to this on even the brightest of sunny days and still shadows will cast over you!  Again, this is made possible by the deployment of Mark Deeks mastery of the keys and synths, as well as much deeper and richer guitar tones. It’s almost like a Cradle Of Filth “Midian” era texture, or Dark Funeral-esque vibe. “A Hollow Existence” continues this new found exploration of even darker black metal, but slows down the pace considerably in the outset, with the guitars hypnotic and oddly relaxing! We see a return of this bleaker atmospheric take later in the album during ‘Towards Elysium’. 

Epic. Gargantuan. Jaw-dropping. Just a few words that come to describe the blazing lead guitar tone and riff that stand heroically as the crescendo to ‘The Unyielding Season’. Genuinely, there’s something so simple yet devastating behind every strike of the guitar unleashing wave after wave of opulent atmospheric splendor! It’s really the calm and ambient mid-section of the song leading into this that leads you into a momentary state of calm that makes you feel the impact of this in full! This is going to be hard to top for sure! 

This may be why it feels as though the album begins to lose a bit of momentum with ‘In Ashen Wake’’; a 9 minute song feels like quite the commitment here in the context of the full album and sustaining full attention is more of a challenge, especially with typical compositional patterns for the band. 

It’s been a while since we’ve heard any instrumentals from Winterfylleth. As such, both ‘Unspoken Elegy’ and ‘Where Dreams Once Grew’ are fantastic additions to the album, offering a welcome change of pace from the blistering pace and infernal damnation. Instead, a nostalgic buzz is gracefully offered in a two course helping of acoustic guitars and orchestral strings combining in a synergy that’s as lush as it is thoroughly intoxicating. 

The final furlong now,  “The Unyielding Season” has pulled us through some rather interesting corridors in the black metal genre now. Can we finish on a high for ‘Enchantment’? Well, if you mean a complete and utter curveball, then yes! The blast beats and KVLT shrieked vocals have been replaced by a much slower marauding pace and a cleaner down-in-your-boots vocal tone to provide an unexpected yet thoroughly epic gothic epic doom metal feel! Think Saturnus or Draconian! Pick your comparison. In either case, this fvcking epic! Completely unexpected but thoroughly incredible! Winterfylleth have taken a huge gamble here but bah god it’s paid off and they’ve shown a side to the band we didn’t know existed! Which is probably the best to sum up the album; they’ve stuck to what’s worked in the past but been bold in pushing their sound to new areas; a risk that’s more than paid off.