Review Summary: a siege for the history books.
When the leather jacketed connoisseurs of atmospheric black metal open discourse around buzzwords like "consistency", Winterfylleth is often a name that blows through the icy winds between an ear and an approving grimace. Through a nigh decade and a half of superb outings and a staunch dedication to their noble craft, this Mancunian troupe of sonic blacksmiths have never fallen short. They're a band you can safely trust in a world of vapid tropes and aimless angst, refusing to waver and always pouring their soul into every release. Through years of channeling the spirits of the air and iron of the heart, they've become a warrior's band harnessing the warrior's spirit that wrought triumph and tragedy into the cloth of our ancestors, and forge these legends into genuine sonic expeditions. They've etched it on record time and again no doubt, and have surely left a legacy any royal act should be proud of, but for those who've not witnessed them in the flesh,
The Siege Of Mercia is a looking glass into how well their sound also translates on the big stage. Taking place at Bloodstock, circa 2017, all they needed was a neat 39 minutes to make an emboldened point: the Winterfylleth name is irrefutably venerable. Immediately, the quality of the recording itself is striking. A ferociously heavy, well mic'd mix roots itself ankle deep in the sediment, dredging the ores of their timbre and giving the soundstage a breadth that’s as deep as it is wide, holding ample space for each instrument and commraderous chorus to speak its tongues with clarity and conviction. In fact, apart from actually walking the festival grounds of Catton Hall at Walton-on-Trent during these tape-captured moments, it couldn't possibly be any more up close and personal, and by the grace of the metal gods, few bands could be more deserving of such an astute portraiture.
Winterfylleth are in top form here, both in instrumental execution and intangible vigor, playing with battleborn passion and a veteran's precision right from the first hit of "The Solitary One Waits For Grace" through to the last glorious moments of "Defending The Realm". They start hot and never let up, with moments like the epic crescendo of the "A Valley Thick With Oak" (and yes, “
a proud spirit remains in the heart of every Englishman” sounds every bit as beautiful as it did in 2010) underscoring what an absolute unit this band really is. How anyone could escape being completely swept away by this perfect storm of group chemistry and high fidelity sound quality would be well beyond this hackneyed critic's grasp, especially when the lot of their finest work on display is equally as rousing on this tape as it is in their immortalized studio counterparts. The alchemy of matter and spirit that makes live metal so infectious isn’t something easily translated beyond the very moment it happens in, so the fact that Winterfylleth, alongside the thousands of glowing hearts in tow, were caught in the act and captured with such precision is not only a testament to the band themselves, but the sound engineering team’s black magic summoning skills and the dash of good luck needed to make it all come together when it did.
The Siege Of Mercia isn’t the kind of live album a fan of heavy music (atmospheric black metal or otherwise) should gloss over and relegate to short term memory loss, because it would be a real disservice to lump this recording in with the bargain-bin of paltry make-a-quick-buck live recordings that plague the world of re-issues and the like. This is essential Winterfylleth, no matter how you slice it with your battle axe, and it does more than enough to earn its keep alongside the shelf space of the band's studio efforts.
