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Wintersun - The Forest Seasons



7.8 | 512 votes |
Release date: 21 July 2017
Style: Extreme power metal

Owners:

288 have it
42 want it


01. Awaken From The Dark Slumber (Spring)
02. The Forest That Weeps (Summer)
03. Eternal Darkness (Autumn)
04. Loneliness (Winter)
05. Loneliness (Winter) [acoustic version] [Digibook bonus]

The Biggest Letdown Of 2017

Additional info
Produced, written and arranged by Jari Mäenpää.
Available as:
  • Standard CD
  • Digibook (including instrumental CD)
  • 2LP (vinyl in gatefold) in different colors
  • CD Boxset (including instrumental and "Live At Tuska 2013" CDs)
  • Download

  • Staff review by
    ScreamingSteelUS
    Rating:
    6.7
    I can't believe I nearly missed one of the biggest releases of 2017. I totally lost track of time. Here I am, three whole months late, and I'm only just getting to the new Wintersun. Oh, man. How embarrassing, right, guys?

    Read more ››
    published 30.10.2017 | Comments (38)

    Found in 32 lists
    Top lists



    Comments page 3 / 5

    Comments: 150   Visited by: 1409 users
    21.07.2017 - 23:13
    moe5512

    Written by IBlackened on 21.07.2017 at 20:33

    I lowered drums, vocals and orchestrations 4 dB and now I can hear the damn guitars. It made the album much more interesting to me.

    See, you are a better mixer than Jari and you did all that without a personal luxury studio
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    22.07.2017 - 00:54
    Rating: 8
    ohmayhem

    Written by IBlackened on 21.07.2017 at 20:33

    I lowered drums, vocals and orchestrations 4 dB and now I can hear the damn guitars. It made the album much more interesting to me.


    Give this man a sauna!
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    22.07.2017 - 16:20
    VIG
    Account deleted
    Written by LeKiwi on 21.07.2017 at 03:36

    Listen to it.


    I listened to this song and I don't hear any black metal...
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    22.07.2017 - 16:26
    Rating: 8
    LeKiwi
    High Fist Prog
    Written by Guest on 22.07.2017 at 16:20

    I listened to this song and I don't hear any black metal...

    Agreed. That song doesn't have any black metal. Try track 3.
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    22.07.2017 - 16:52
    VIG
    Account deleted
    Written by LeKiwi on 22.07.2017 at 16:26

    Agreed. That song doesn't have any black metal. Try track 3.


    Where can I hear it?
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    22.07.2017 - 23:27
    koob

    Well, that was boring...
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    23.07.2017 - 00:42
    Alondate

    It seems hating bands like wintersun and ne obliviscaris makes you pretty cool on the internet
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    23.07.2017 - 01:17
    Maco
    Pvt Funderground
    I fell asleep on my first listen. It's something that rarely happens to me, not really a good sign.
    ----
    Crackhead Megadeth reigns supreme.
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    23.07.2017 - 09:36
    Rating: 8
    LeKiwi
    High Fist Prog
    Written by Guest on 22.07.2017 at 16:52

    Where can I hear it?

    Places...online.
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    23.07.2017 - 22:07
    The Benighted

    Written by Alondate on 23.07.2017 at 00:42

    It seems hating bands like wintersun and ne obliviscaris makes you pretty cool on the internet

    Don't lump Ne Obliviscaris in with Jari. They're not trying to scam their fans into buying them a sauna, for one.
    ----
    Learn to adapt to the change, or get washed away like tears in the rain.
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    24.07.2017 - 00:46
    Alondate

    You know people bash at Ne Obliviscaris too. Because they have a patreon page

    I find it really weird when people say "Jari is a thief" or "Ne Obliviscaris members just sit their ass off, don't work and steal people's money". Why people bother with these things? Fans give willingly their money to their favorite artists. That's all. I believe if some die hard fans had the chance, they would buy a whole new house for Jari or any other artist they love so much. Again, I don't see any problem here. They just express their love with this kind of action, giving money or buying something
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    24.07.2017 - 01:05
    Rating: 9
    SoUnDs LiKe PoP

    I'm just sitting here picturing in my head all the angry MS users grimacing and growling while they give the album a low rating. Hope it makes them feel better.
    ----
    I lift weights and listen to metal
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    24.07.2017 - 11:41
    moe5512

    Written by SoUnDs LiKe PoP on 24.07.2017 at 01:05

    I'm just sitting here picturing in my head all the angry MS users grimacing and growling while they give the album a low rating. Hope it makes them feel better.

    It's similar to naive ms users that give ridiculously high scores to save to overall score
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    24.07.2017 - 16:02
    Rating: 8
    Liafev

    Reading the comments here makes me think of a kindergarten debate .. Didn't your parents taught you how grown ups say "I don't like this" instead of repeating again and again "this is mediocre" ? Because you know what ? Lots of people (including me) actually like this album quite a lot..
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    24.07.2017 - 16:08
    Rating: 8
    Liafev

    That being said, I think this is the weakest Wintersun album though .. I was expecting much more power from this, a more agressive sound .. I listen to their first album to get motivated when I'm in the street, going to work in the morning or running in the evening. This latest effort feels more appropriate for a couch session.
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    24.07.2017 - 18:05
    Rating: 7
    bddidier

    Written by Litvin on 21.07.2017 at 15:15

    Ahhh Jari could of done better...I believe he spend more time on marketing that on actually writing the album


    And still you gave it a 9 ...
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    24.07.2017 - 20:56
    Rating: 8
    Until the End

    I never thought I'd say this about any of Jari's work but this is pretty mediocre for his standard. I've probably listened to the self titled album at least 500 times in its entirety since 2004, Time I about 75/100 times since 2012. I think I'll be lucky to have listened to this 50 times by 2030. We need Time II and quickly (so in Jari time, within 5 years.)
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    24.07.2017 - 21:47
    Rating: 7
    Necrodamus

    Yes- this album is pretentious. No- this album was not worth the wait. But I don't think it deserves as much hate as its getting. The self-titled album set the bar extremely high. This album is still very good, and I like it a fair amount more than Time I.
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    24.07.2017 - 23:19
    Rating: 4
    Neoxx07

    Jari is reading all this comments in his new golden sauna
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    25.07.2017 - 03:10
    Rating: 8
    Berserk

    Guess being a hater is just the cool thing to do here Some people on metalstorm are bitter.. about everything.

    The first song I found really good. The forest that weeps IMO is phenomenal. Autumn kind of sucked. Loneliness was pretty good. I was pleasantly surprised by this.
    ----
    Fear the Old Blood
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    25.07.2017 - 05:37
    Marcel Hubregtse
    Grumpy Old Fuck
    Ah another butthurt fanboy?
    Thinking something or even some isn't all that good doesn't make one a hater. Especially when those so-called haters have good reasons not to like it. That makes them open-minded realists instead of close-minded lovers.
    ----
    Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal

    Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight
    Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.)
    05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996

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    25.07.2017 - 05:40
    Marcel Hubregtse
    Grumpy Old Fuck
    Ah another butthurt fanboy?
    Thinking something or even some band isn't all that good doesn't make one a hater. Especially when those so-called haters have good reasons not to like it. That makes them open-minded realists instead of close-minded lovers.
    ----
    Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal

    Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight
    Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.)
    05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996

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    25.07.2017 - 10:23
    Rating: 7
    cobrapel
    Concept One
    Only 17/117 people rated this album less than 7. Can't see that hate here, the opposite indeed
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    25.07.2017 - 16:06
    Rating: 9
    Sword_Chant

    After having listened to it a few times, it is definitely the weakest effort in both Wintersun's and Jari's discography, and imo it's their slowest, and least creative album with the least interesting number of melodies or ideas. It just didn't live up to the hype surrounding it and in 5 years in the making it could've been better, but it is still a very respectable album that has got good consistency, nice lyrical themes and cool artwork. Like Time I and II, they obviously worked very hard to try and make this one a masterpiece - and some parts do sound amazing, for example the intro in Spring, but then there are other parts that don't really mold together, and some parts/riffs drag out. The strongest track, in my opinion, is probably Autumn because the rest of the album is missing the same pace and energy heard in that song. For me it's in between an 8/10 or a 9/10, it's definitely not interesting enough to be AOTY and not as good as I was hoping but it's still got enough good qualities in it that make me keep going back to listen.
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    25.07.2017 - 18:10
    Rating: 9
    Classic Bob G

    I've been spinning this nonstop. Absolutely loving this album as whole, which I thought was long dead in the age of the single. Give it a listen; It's big, epic and has a few new flavours to add to the Wintersun sound. Good job gents! Worth the wait.
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    25.07.2017 - 20:05
    Rating: 8
    Until the End

    Wintersun 10, Time I 8.5, TFS 7.5.
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    25.07.2017 - 21:21
    Rating: 6
    FreddeSwede

    Just a few comments on their new album. I'm one of their really big fans. I can't say how many times I still give their debut and Time I a spinn. Especially the first one, which is a great album in so many ways. Now with that being said, compared to their first two albums, the new album is for me a let down. Not a big one, but enough to be mentioned. The reason for this is quite simple.

    It lacks the technical parts, the creativity and fore most it lacks the soul that the two earlier albums had. It's not a bad album, it just feels bland and forced out. It's like going to the cinema and end up liking the trailers more than the actual movie. It's a middle act. Nothing special at all. The first song, the second one and Loneliness (acoustic version) are okay. The last one just because Jari actually sings well and it's atleast an effort to make things special. Song three, Autumn, is just a fucking wall of sound without anything interesting at all.

    The goog thing about this bland album, is that it takes us one step closer to Time II which has already been written during the period when their music had a soul to it. So hopefully the studio will get built soon and Time II will be released.
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    25.07.2017 - 23:01
    Rating: 10
    MeatWolf

    I pretty much understand what FreddeSwede wrote, it's not that dramatic for me but the album is definitely not as immensely grandiose as Time I was. But then again, it wasn't meant to be, it was meant to be a mix between oldschool and contemporary Wintersun stuff and with quite a raw intentional sound.

    While I don't really praise the debut as much as many do, it was a very good album, maybe even the best album of Finnish melodeath subgenre, it didn't strike me as perfection. Time I on the other hand is an album 10-20 years ahead of its time, no one even tried to approach something like this yet. So of course the bar is set in the stars and it's almost impossible to even reach it. Having that said, The Forest Seasons still has plenty of Jari's trademark breathtaking stuff, mostly showcased in the end of Spring (insane guitar/orchestral duel, wish it lasted more than just a couple dozen of seconds), whole Summer track (a towering colossus of epicness with absolutely crushing chorus) and of course Winter with Jari's godlike cleans that sound like breath of heavens. Naming just the ultimate moments, even Autumn has a lot to dig, even though I generally don't like melodic black stuff at all. So I wouldn't say it lacks the soul, more like it lacks the feeling of utter perfection beyond imaginable. Well, you can't demand every record to be like that because first of all it takes many more years of hard work to achieve that.

    Jari never denied it's basically a filler album and it took just 9 months (!) to piece together music-wise (while both Wintersun and Time took almost 10 years, don't forget that). Also it feels like he put so many different things on it to please everyone (old Ensiferum vibes, Summoning vibes, general black metal vibes, signature epic Wintersun vibes, mean prominent guitars, much less orchestral arrangements etc etc) which on one hand worked (people name totally different tracks they liked the most) and on the other it didn't (it's really difficult to like them ALL with the same heart).

    Still the trick is, even a filler album by Jari's standards is still something miles above everything else I've heard since the release of Time I.
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    26.07.2017 - 17:59
    Bad English
    Tage Westerlund
    This is album what people from north will understand it deeper meaning what artist want to say, that's why it is more just an album. In some way I like it , but not so good musically, as lyrically. Its amazing how to see all this and now I have seen midnight sun, I am so longing for winter, ice road and so on. That's what is more important about this, message what he says and people who lives in same location cold, will understand. 1th was best, btw
    ----
    Life is to short for LOVE, there is many great things to do online !!!

    Stormtroopers of Death - ''Speak English or Die''
    apos;'
    [image]
    I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
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    26.07.2017 - 18:10
    Rating: 8
    The Melting Snow

    Written by Bad English on 26.07.2017 at 17:59

    This is album what people from north will understand it deeper meaning what artist want to say, that's why it is more just an album. In some way I like it , but not so good musically, as lyrically. Its amazing how to see all this and now I have seen midnight sun, I am so longing for winter, ice road and so on. That's what is more important about this, message what he says and people who lives in same location cold, will understand. 1th was best, btw


    I wonder why MS staff doesnt ban you from commenting.

    i've seen you here for a couple years, and I am sure that time is enough to learn how to construct a sentence in english. why cant anyone else see that you do this on purpose? :p
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