New Show Review: Eluveitie, Wintersun, Varg
1/25/2013 1:40:51 PM by Frank




"When Hell freezes over." So the saying goes for impossible dreams or fates forsworn. Flip the script (and thermometer) for a Chicago December without a single flake of snow, and the stage is set for one such dream finally awaking. Not merely awaking—leaping up from its slumber, sparkling with lightning, and striking off to conquer the world on the solar winds of destiny. And why stop at the world? This conquest is boundless, cosmic, eternal. This is Jari Mäenpää's Wintersun, the long-heralded arrival of 'Time', and their first North American tour.

So maybe this overstates things a little. But for many fans in the metal world, Wintersun's 2004 self-titled was an instant classic of millennial metal: a clinic of neoclassical technique married to epic songwriting chops that maintained focus and a thrilling momentum. This latter quality was the kicker, for while any number of home-studio virtuosos can shred perpetually, 'Wintersun' was a front-to-back march of indelible themes and seamless structures, all tinged with an inimitably arctic zest. It was, in short, a do-your-worst gauntlet thrown at the feet of every other long-haired Finn with a guitar, pretty much ever.--Etiam

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