Review Summary: Winterbreed craft an interesting and enjoyable album, although a dark shadow might already be impending on the band’s future.
2019 has been, without doubt, a thrilling year for heavy music, and for the Italian underground scene as well, with a series of extremely strong releases. After more than a year of wait, even Winterbreed join the feast, releasing their long-delayed debut, titled “A Weary Fading Soul”. These Vicenza symphonic metallers surely have proved themselves with this release, crafting an interesting and enjoyable album, although a dark shadow might already be impending on the band’s future (more on that later).
Musically speaking, Winterbreed aren’t completely reinventing symphonic/gothic metal, but they are able to craft a product with a distinctive identity, characterized by a refined sound and some features that immediately set them apart from the rest of the symphonic metal scene. First of all, singer Lucrezia Naj Fovino usually employs a lower register for her vocal delivery: semi-operatic sections are still present, but the general performance is quite different, and definitely darker, than great part of the competition. The dark and dreamlike atmosphere, granted by the mix of Fovino’s vocals and heavy, B-tuned guitar work, featuring doom-influenced riffs accompanied by occasional melancholic melodies (some Katatonia influences are obvious here), is probably the most successful feature of the album: from start to finish, the listener will feel like he was cast in a sort of anguished dream, face to face with the regrets and the errors of a past he is trying to escape from.
The whole lot is accompanied by majestic orchestrations, drawing at times inspiration from other Italian symphonic metal ensembles, especially Fleshgod Apocalypse (just think to the ending track, “Scars”), although obviously the composition is oriented towards more introspective, dismal and grievous shores, and seasoned by a perfectly fitting production, with a particularly punchy guitar sound and perfectly audible bass lines. One small note, however, goes to the effects placed on the vocals, that at times are frankly too much and make them sound a bit more processed than what is needed. Furthermore, I found really interesting the sporadic growled backing vocals of the last two tracks, but I wish the band experimented more extensively with this feature than what they did, as I think they could have really added something to the songs in at least another couple of occasions. “A Weary Fading Soul” is better when listened in full, although obviously some tracks are standing out: “The Crown” is definitely the most catchy and memorable song of the lot, while “Lethe” is probably the most complex and mature track, featuring an excellent guitar work and a brilliant reprise of Mozart’s “Messa da Requiem”. “Scars”, on the other hand, perfectly closes the album, thanks to its aggressive nature, punchy vocal delivery and the fantastic orchestrations. A final mention goes to the proficient lyricism of the vocalist, capable of reaching some truly remarkable peaks of excellence with the texts she wrote, thus vastly enriching the whole product.
“A Weary Fading Soul” sees Winterbreed performing as their best incarnation of themselves: the band matured a lot from their 2015 EP, and was able to craft an interesting and emotional piece of music. Sadly however, as I anticipated at the beginning of the review, this could be the Vicenza ensemble’s swan song: reliable sources are spreading rumors about a probable split-up of the band, which would be a real shame considering the promising future these young metalheads have ahead. Is this Winterbreed’s final hour? Or will the phoenix once again rise from the ashes, embracing its rebirth? Only time will tell; for now, just be sure not to miss this fascinating piece of music.
