Review Summary: Jari has truly outdone himself
An ethereal light glimmers through a beautiful forest scene. A wizard sits on the bank of a shimmering stream in the sunlit glade, contemplatively soaking in his surroundings. Time is but a flicker. Spring, summer, autumn, winter... fleeting moments lost in the morning breeze.
The Forest Seasons is a tour de force, its sheer magnitude is a wonder to behold. Jari promised the best and biggest production of his career... and delivered. Songs are packed with layer upon layer of orchestration, layer upon layer of choirs and vocal harmonies. It's pure Devin Townsend, man. Everything is so big and lush and crisp, listen closely and you'll hear sparkling pizzicato strings and hooting owls. It's like you're actually in the forest! Imagine Terria but with blastbeats. It is that good.
Time I was incredible, it built upon the basic and sorta typical Children of Bodom-esque sound of the self-titled album and transcended Wintersun's sound into something special. Japanese instruments and melodies were woven into the classic melodic death metal sound to create a truly unique experience that sounded absolutely monolithic. Forget Norther, Kalmah, all those cookie cutter bands. Wintersun is the real deal. Too bad Nuclear Blast was unwilling to sufficiently finance them, forcing them to compromise on their vision and only deliver half of what was promised.
My favourite song from Time I was the 13 minute epic
Sons of Winter and Stars. Remember that “killer riff”? The one appropriately named because it's “so good”? Upon learning that The Forest Seasons would feature an entire quartet of similarly colossal pieces I was immediately on board. The second track even features its own “killer riff”, there's a Youtube video where an extract from Jari's Indiegogo pitch is repeated for an hour. I listened to it for a solid 19 minutes. It's so good.
I have heard complaints regarding the mix of this album, but to those naysayers I encourage them to listen to the album again. With a good speaker set-up this time, one that allows you to make out the rhythm guitar amongst the rich wall of sound. The Wintersun listening experience is strictly hi-fi, any fans listening on sub-optimal speakers are doing themselves, and Jari, a disservice. Jari has made many sacrifices to bring us The Forest Seasons, even postponing Time II lest we be subjected to an experience that doesn't live up to his magnificent vision.
The Forest Seasons has a fantastic organic sound, the drums are actually played live by the fantastic Kai Hahto who almost sounds like a drum machine. That is how good he is! The guitar sound is a bit more harsh, a bit more “kvlt” shall we say. It'd sound right at home on an Emperor album only here the production is polished and huge, a vast improvement over the sloppy and unlistenable black metal albums of old. The kick-ass
Eternal Darkness is almost entirely made up of blastbeats. It's brutal as hell and never lets up, it feels like a chore to get through the whole song but I think that's sort of the point. It's a song about death, you see. Like how my patience is tested throughout the course of the song, life is a continuous struggle and we clutch to it until the bitter end. It's beautiful. Wintersun is a lot deeper than those other, cheesier bands that sing about vikings and elves. Jari's lyrics deal with death, time, space, winter... you know, real sh*t.
The album ends with
Loneliness and it is clearly inspired by the long dark Finnish winters, where it feels like all hope fades away. It feels like a spiritual successor to
Land of Snow and Sorrow,
Sleeping Stars and half of Jari's other songs. I like that sort of consistent vision in a band. Through a single song Wintersun can sound like Emperor, Dimmu Borgir, Ensiferum, Opeth, all the great bands you know, and tie it all together with a consistent theme. It's genius.
His vocal performance on this song is so... so real, you know? It's so raw, you can feel the pain he feels with every word. I almost tear up every time I listen. This is the sort of metal I can show to people who hate metal and have them appreciate it. Maybe they won't appreciate it on the same level that I do, but only the most insufferable cynic can listen to Jari's soaring vocals and not get shivers. Which is appropriate because this song is about winter. Wow I only just realised that, nice.
Jari has done it again. This is a beautiful record I know I'll be spinning constantly for the next few weeks. I can't wait to bang my head to
Eternal Darkness, chant along to
The Forest that Weeps and wave my hands back and forth to
Loneliness when Wintersun tours next. This is the pinnacle of metal and I can't wait to hear the dozen or so albums worth of material Jari has in store for us in the coming decades. A round of applause to Jari, the mystical wizard of the forest.
