Band:	Winterlong
Album:	Winterlong
Style:	Power metal, Progressive metal
Release date:	January 2005

01. The Priest
02. Ten Digits Of The Future
03. Judgement Day
04. A Vision Of The Wolf
05. Ragnarök
06. Each Day We Die
07. We'll Ride From The Dead
08. Bloodshred
09. Demise
10. Oblivion
11. The End Of The Longest Winter

"Don't stop at your first impression son, or you'll miss many good things in life"? These words, spoken by my mom when I was a reluctant child, resound through the misty depths of my memory as I lay down on my bed, listening to the new album of the Swedish power proggers of Winterlong. I am a good son and I always listen to my mom. Mom, you couldn't have been wiser! I remember I heard some songs taken from Winterlong's first album a few years ago, and I didn't find anything interesting whatsoever. Nothing. Just your average everyday power metal. So I didn't even bother listening to their second album, and put the name of this band somewhere in a corner of my brain, to be soon forgotten.

This introduction, that may seem useless to many (all?) of you, only has the purpose to explain the surprise I've gone through with the new self-titled album. Obviously bands can grow up, even if I doubted it. While power prog is really far from being my fav genre, I found myself coming back to this album over and over again. I guess the massive and VERY heavy production helps a lot too. That's really one great album that fans of power and prog (as well as others, as you'll see later) should rush up to.

Everything begins with the powerful "The Priest", a heavy mid-paced song that owes as much to Judas Priest as to Iron Maiden. The first song is also time to notice the great vocals of Mikael Holm, a hybrid between Bruce Dickinson and Dave Mustaine. Megadeth, the influence of which you can find on some thrashy songs such as "Each Day We Die" and "Ten Digits Of The Future", both furious and technical cavalcades with great drumming and catchy chorus and riffs. "Ten Digits Of The Future", in my opinion the greatest song, is an epic track that's bound to become their standard song. Once again, the chorus is worth all your attention. The acoustic interlude "A Vision Of The Wolf", although quite short, really makes it, with this kind of "let's all sit around a bonfire and sing and dance" atmosphere. Very enjoyable.

The other instrumental track, "Bloodshred", is a demonstration of the talent of guitarist Thorbjörn Englund. A blatantly neo-classical moment and also a bit of a show-off at times, but once in a while it doesn't bother me. On the other hand, "We'll Rise From The Dead" is a pure power metal song, with particularly amazing bass playing, that reminds me a lot, as much in the vocals as in the vocal parts, of first-era Angra, and songs like "Z.I.T.O." and "Carry On". Great song again. "Demise" calms everything down. It's a very cool song with omnipresent classical piano that turns into a power ballad in the middle before changing back to the beginning. Actually, it's the kind of song that would send shivers down Bigfoot's spine. After that vision of musical beauty, "Oblivion" and its raging speed sounds really brutal, and not really subtle. Some Angra-like moments again (watch the solos!), lost in an epic power heavy layer with aggressive vocals and some operatic female choirs, way to go guys!

Damn, I didn't think that I would appreciate so much a power prog album, above all at a moment when I'm more into extreme stuff, but this one really made it for me. And I wager it will also make it for you, yes you readers who are always hungering for some nice metal. Time for my motto now: Get it or go to hell!!

Highlights: The Priest, Ten Digits Of The Future, Each Day We Die, We'll Rise From The Dead