Back in the days I still built snowmen and held a snowfight between me and my friends, I was young and, just between you and me, a little bit whacko. I always threw 'm at the wrong time to the wrong person. That's when I hit an old man in a electro-powered scooter directly in the face.
It was beautiful.
At least, that's before I recognized the guy. It was this old, evil guy who smoked cigars all day long and did nothing else than try and humiliate the youths in my neighbourhood...
Things got wild. I never knew an electro-powered scooter could slide that good over ice, though. Good thing I saw him coming from miles away *grin*.
Buuuuut... eventually he caught up with us, called my dad and I was grounded for 3 weeks.
...Winter is not my favourite time of the year.

[b]Wintersun[/b]’s mastermind is the finnish multi-instrumentalist [b]Jari M�enp��[/b]. After his departure at [b]Ensiferum[/b], Jari had time to focus on his own music.
[b]Wintersun[/b]’s music is a mixture of styles. Heavy metal, black metal, folk metal and melodic deathmetal are the base of Jari’s songwriting.

First thing I noticed was the speed with which the songs fly by. Fast riffs, double bass, thrashbeat and black / death metal blastbeats are the most common on this self-titled debut. Of course an album would not be complete without the occasional mid-tempo / slow songs. On [b]Wintersun[/b] these come in the shape of the slower, more heavy metal / folk oriented [i]Death and the Healing[/i] and [i]Sadness and Hate[/i].

Of course the guitars rule this album above anything else (although the drums do come [i]very[/i] close), which gives it an overall feel of undeniable agression. Technically, the guitarwork on this album is mostly impressive. Although some riffs sound a lot alike, the speed with which solos and riffs tear through these 54 minutes of running time makes up a bit for that.
Unlike [b]Children of Bodom[/b] for example (a lot of people will undoubtedly compare [b]Wintersun[/b] with them immediately), keyboards have been put to other use than just to show off musical skills. On this record, they tend to care for the accompanying of the guitars and the folk aspect mostly, as occasionally for an atmospheric break between riffs.
Jari’s vocal capabilities mainly concentrate on the production of a raw blackmetal scream, although he is capable of guiding the more philosophical lyrical parts on a solid clean voice with a good reach (very important, considering the danger of becoming a nuisance is very big within this kind of music).

[b]Wintersun[/b] appealed to me very much in every way, yet it is not an album of such innovativity that I’d label it as a ‘must have’. I did learn something by listening to this album, though. No matter how you dislike winter, [b]Jari M�enp��[/b] is a light most welcome in the ice-cold music industry of late.

[b]Absolute favourite song: Winter Madness[/b]

[b]Line-up:[/b]
Kai ‘The Grinder’ Hahto - drums
Jari M�enp�� - clean vocals, aggressive vocals, all guitars, bass, synthesizers

[b]Tracklist:[/b]
1. Beyond The Dark Sun
2. Winter Madness
3. Sleeping Stars
4. Battle Against Time
5. Death And The Healing
6. Starchild
7. Beautiful Death
8. Sadness And Hate