Borknagar – Winter Thrice

[schema type=”review” name=”Borknagar – Winter Thrice” description=”Label: Century Media” author=”Basak Günel” pubdate=”2016-01-22″ ]

A band like Borknagar surely needs no introduction. The Norwegian metal band has been active for 20 years and they are celebrating it with “Winter Thrice”. The album also features Garm (Ulver) as guest vocalist in two songs -“Winter Thrice” and “Terminus”-.

The mastermind of the band Øystein G. Brun states: “I always strive to progress and take things a step further, but I think it’s equally important to keep our musical roots.” and this is indeed so with “Winter Thrice”…‘Epic’, ‘diverse’ and ‘mind-blowing’ are some of the words that came to my mind when I listened to the record. With a band like Borknagar, it’s not a surprise though. Throughout the record, the band offers us the great harmony of many styles within the authentic Borknagar sound and takes us to the journey in this winter season. So diversity is definitely one of the highlights of this record; I am sure the listeners will hear the elements from black, power, folk/pagan metal and also progressive rock/metal (“Panorama”).

When we dig deeper into the record, we see that the clean vocals dominate… and it’s awesome! Clean vocals can be bit of a problem in records like this but the band managed to use this element quite wisely and delivers us this perfect harmony of both clean and grim vocals! The album is at times melodic and at times harsh and winter-ish! In this sense, the sound is not dull; there are even some twists here and there but they are to be discovered once the listener listens to the album again and again! Some of the highlights of the record are “Winter Thrice” (great example of the clean and grim vocals), “Cold Runs The River” (my favorite from the record; great melodies) and “Noctilucent”, which has this grim and brutal atmosphere. I think that these songs represent the signature of the Borknagar sound and this album in general!

One criticism would be that the songs, in my opinion, are either too strong or too weak. I found the first half of the album really epic and mind-blowing and although the second half was also above-average, it did not strike me as much as the first half. However, this does not disturb the overall atmosphere of the record.

What else is there to say? “Winter Thrice” is perfect for the winter season! Sit back and enjoy the epicness of the record!

Line-Up:
Øystein G. Brun – clean and electric guitars
Vintersorg – grim and clean vocals, choirs
Jens F. Ryland – lead guitars
ICS Vortex – bass, clean vocals and choirs
Lars A. Nedland – keys, clean vocals and choirs
Baard Kolstad – drums

Tracklist: 01. The Rhymes Of The Mountain 02. Winter Thrice 03. Cold Runs The River 04. Panorama 05. When Chaos Calls 06. Erodent 07. Noctilucent 08. Terminus

Links:
Borknagar Facebook
Borknagar Official