Rating: 8.5

Country: USA

Release Date: 2006

Record Label: Murderous Dark Records

Track list:
1.Cycles of the Flesh
2.Malevolence
3.Light of a Fading Sun
4.Edifice of Betrayal
5.In Frozen Apathy
6.Autumn Caskets
7.Blood From a Broken Wing
8.The Audient Void
9.Death Certificate (Carcass cover, hidden track)

Band Website: Winterthrall

Winterthrall - Nightmares for the Sleepless

Steve Nelson - Guitars, Vocals, and Guitar Synth
Ruben Lugo - Bass, Backing Vocals
Rob Alaniz - Drums
Josh Standifer - Guitars

Black metal is all about balance. You need just enough rawness, but not so much that that it could be mistaken for radio static. Enough melody to enthrall, but not so much that everything turns into a big pile of sugary cheese. Fortunately for Winterthrall, they've managed to harness that balance quite effectively. This self-released CD is, oddly enough, better than a lot of stuff being churned out by much bigger (and overhyped) bands on pseudo-major labels. No change from the usual story, then.

"Cycles of the Flesh" kicks off in a suspiciously similar fashion to Cirith Gorgor's "Conquering the Shadowworld", and in their faster moments Winterthrall are generally quite similar to that vastly underrated band's earlier material. This is much tighter (and cleaner) though, and shot through with moments of epic doom and death metal crunch (it's not all tremolo abuse here, thank fuck) and a healthy dose of early Dissection influence. One thing this band does very, very well is EPIC. Even though the disc is only around 40 minutes long (and that's including a big annoying gap between the last track and the rather excellent Carcass cover), it has a breadth and scope that defies its own brevity. These songs open up vistas of sweeping, frostbitten death which are really quite captivating. The level of instrumental fluency is far beyond the norm for an album which isn't swamped in pro-tooled glitz - on the contrary, it's extremely raw and almost live sounding, yet clear as glass - and allows the band to rev up to insane speed or inject a grandiose lead guitar melody which grabs the listener's attention and refuses to let go for the duration. The presence of guitar synths creates a background ambience which never becomes overpowering or annoying.

It's a pity this disc will probably never gain the attention it deserves, mostly due to lack of promotion, but those who discover it will doubtessly gain many hours of grim amusement. It's certainly not the most original album ever, but what it lacks in innovation it far surpasses in atmosphere and replay value. Occasionally it lapses into semi-goth territory (sections of "In Frozen Apathy", although this is extremely well done and not intrusive at all) but it's mostly an icy blast of majestic fury which levels all in its path.

August 15th, 2007