Artist: Winterfylleth
Title: The Unyielding Season
Type: Album
Label: Napalm Records
It’s been a long time having Winterfylleth in the world, nineteen years or so long. It’s also been a journey with them from folk tinged black metal steeped in the history of the English land through introspection upon its meaning and their place in it, then slowly turning a little more outwards and casting their poetic gaze upon the world around them. They have done acoustic work, folk music, interacted with an incredible range of other musicians and seen their music blossom into a powerhouse of atmospheric black metal. I’ve had some rewarding chats at gigs over the years, seen them play the first gig after the war in Ukraine began which was such a personal performance full of passion and anger, and had a little musical exchange here and there; but as a band they have somehow managed to maintain a certain enigma around them. Their lyrics are rich with allegory and poetry and you must read them closely if you want to be fully rewarded.
The album previous to the, The Imperious Horizon was a monolithic album, a guardian and a warning of what they could see approaching (see Winterfylleth – The Imperious Horizon (Ave Noctum) ) and I think ‘The Unyielding Season’ is the reaction to what has come to pass.
‘Heroes Of A Hundred Fields’ has a blazing riff that is signature Winterfylleth. It couldn’t be anyone else. The density of the riff whilst still pushing the melody through it. And it burns. This is an angry, angry Winterfylleth. It attacks. Watchmen, behold the warnings dire. And damn when that keyboard melody rises through they rip straight into your heart. Its a marvellous opening. Not simply proof that the fire still burns but that it goes onwards. ‘Echoes In The After’, adapted from a poem by Philip Sydney (apparently, I am sadly ignorant of such works and hang my head in shame) and also a reaction to the felling of the Sycamore Gap tree is quite simply beautiful; a surging blend of fire and regret, mourning and that anger once more. Some men resolve to grow a life, but others tear it down again. It moves through passages with the grace of a ship under full sail; the current onwards but the ripples of tempo and melody shifting softly as it does. It’s this incredible dance that I can think of few bands who can do it as well as Winterfylleth.
‘A Hollow Existence’ is a memorial, a song of profound sadness in the almost gentle sway of the melody. It is haunting, reflective on not just a life lived but on what still remains. To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die is the quote from Thomas Campbell laid upon the lyric sheet. ‘Perdition’s Flame’, in contrast, is hard edged and full of full on fury. The lyrics tear down tyrants and the song perhaps the most violent I have heard from the band in a good while.
A sky of dread wighs down on man, no dawn comes in the tyrant’s wake. So begins the title track. There is a strange feeling of grim despair that collects in my mind listening to this. A warning not heeded perhaps, so many these days so it can nestle in many a heart for many a reason. The guitar work here is mournful, but sliding so deep into you it still stirs the blood somehow. Magnificent, imposing, vivid with strength and a face turned upwards. We are the storm that wouldn’t tame it says. Whatever your battle I hope this is true for you too.
‘Unspoken Elegy’ is the quiet after that storm, an acounstic guitar, a plaintive tune played with deftness and feeling, a cello to swell the clouds of emotion to breaking point. Elegaic indeed.
‘In Ashen Wake’ comes on an ominous swell, a bleak landscape described in music. Slow, building, like a gaze cast over the devastation. It is harsh when it coalesces; the vocals have more bite here. The words talk of choked rivers, decaying trees, ash upon pastures. The tune cuts as deep to be sure, but it has a judgemental feel: This is not the wrath of gods nor punishment forged in the stars. This is nature shedding sickness, a body exhaling its fever in flame.
‘Towards Elysium’ is the last full song of the album, a prayer almost, for the deserved ends of evil and unjust men…. depart from me, ye cursed souls, into the everlasting fire. I have a litany of such figures, and I can hope this is true whoever strokes the flames. It is a cataclysmic song, a brutal end for a grim ending. ‘Where Dreams Once Grew’ closes the album with delicacy, acoustic plucking, but somewhere in my mind this most angry of Winterfylleth albums remains burning.
There is also a cover of the classic Paradise Lost song ‘Enchantment’ from Draconian Times I think (checks, yes) which is quite remarkable and highly reccomended too; that balance of the spirit of the original but with more than enough of their own take on it. And reminds me of how much I used to love Paradise Lost.
‘The Unyielding Season’ is probably the most bitter and angry album of the band. Yes there are moments of deep, solemnity too such as ‘A Hollow Existence’, but the thread, the feel is that the warning peering over The Imperious Horizon is here.
Thoughtful, still enigmatic and open to your own interpretation, but there is fire here and it burns angry. Winterfylleth here are absolutely still at their best.
Gizmo
Walking The Liminal Space 