Review Summary: Pure symphonic folk weeb metal cheese, enjoyable listen if you take it for what it is and put 2 decades of expectations aside. Listen with good audio equipment and listen to the Dynamic 2db mix if you can acquire it. Listen to the whole Album (I and II) b
Let me Start off by admitting I used to be a Wintersun super fan when I was in High school a little over a decade ago and so I have always been a huge fan of Jari's Music and this has coloured my impression of the Album here to a certain degree. For as much as I try to be objective, I fully recognize I have my bias which influences my Opinions quite a degree.
In saying that I will also state that I didn't like the last Album by Wintersun much. The Forest seasons in my opinion felt lazy and the tracks were far too long that listening to the Album required a lot of my time in ways that The self titled Album from 2004 didnt. You could listen to the tracks on the ST individually and it didn't feel like you were getting a worse experience. But I feel like with Time I, and The forest Seasons, you had to listen to the whole package at once or the albums tonally fall apart. well, sorta. Some Tracks on Time I continue to stick with me to this day. I mean heck it's become a tradition of me to play Land of snow and Sorrow every time the first snowfall occurs here in the coastal PNW, rare as that may be. So Time I has absolutely stuck with me as an Album that had a profound impact on me.
You may ask why I am talking about Time I so much in a Review of Time II. well Quite Honestly it's Because I view Time I and II to be one album and so I cannot fairly review Time II without mention Time I and what I liked about that Album. I Gave Time I a 4.5/5 back in 2012 and I think I'd mostly keep that rating today. I have matured a lot since 2012 and my music taste has thusly expanded a fair deal since then as well.
Now On to Time II. In many ways I believe many on Sputnik Music haven't given the Album a fair shake because of how over hyped this Album has been for 2 decades by Jari and his acolytes. By no means is Time a masterpiece. It's clunky, overly ambitious, and the Mixing isn't as good as Jari lead us all to believe. But Musically there's so much here to love and appreciate. I enjoyed every track on this Album. Interestingly enough my least favourite track on here is actually the way of the fire. But this may be due to my experience listening to live rips of this track and thusly being well aware of what it's supposed to sound like. Still a very enjoyable, make no mistake. But I found Storm and Silver Leaves to be by far my favourite tracks on the Album.
I know many on here view Silver Leaves to be a tad boring, though Storm seems to get the right level of appreciation here. Musically this album has a lot to love, but it'll never live up to several decades of hype and expectation.
Jari didn't release this because he was lazy, I don't consider any other excuse justifiable. Still though, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I give Time II a 4.5/5 and I give the complete Time Album a 9/10. With every listen my appreciation of the Album and enjoyment improves.
I used Grado RS1i headphones for my listening experience here. Good audio equipment is essential
