El noveno álbum de los ingleses Winterfylleth es una nueva lección de sonido black atmosférico, ofreciendo esta vez una vertiente mucho más directa y cruda de su propuesta, manteniendo una delicada armonía entre crudeza y melodía, entre agresividad y atmósfera. El álbum se muestra mucho más directo desde el inicio que sus predecesores, hay una rabia desbocada en todo el conjunto, tanto en una atronadora batería que marca un ritmo realmente alto, como en la capacidad para trabajar unos riffs con unas texturas capaces de trasmitir tanto esa rabia que se desprende de la intensidad del álbum, como un delicada melodía que va recorriendo el conjunto en un segundo plano, dejando un regusto a melancolía y un tono que atesora una combinación de atmósferas con paganismo. Las voces se decantan también por unos registros bastante directos y crudos, pocas secciones se permiten un pequeño descanso, aportando una capa de agresividad y crudeza, esta vez sin efecto contraste, ya que el tono se amolda perfectamente al registro de la propuesta, en un afán de querer llevar la intensidad a un plano más desbocado, sumergiendo al oyente en un espiral de destrucción y de sentimiento encontrados. Esos pasajes más atmosféricos y evocadores, han cedido protagonismo a ese tono más directo del álbum, sin embargo cuando hacen acto de aparición tiñen el conjunto de una mayor melancolía, con sentimientos cercanos a la tristeza, pero sabiendo también trabajar facetas más melódicas que buscan sus raices en aspectos más paganos. El ritmo alto del álbum y ese afán por querer llevar el sonido del álbum a extremos hace que la atmosfera ceda terreno ante la soledad para afrontar sensaciones más cercanas a la lucha, la muerte y la rabia. El conjunto acaba por desprender un regusto a álbum mayúsculo en cuanto al denso y arduo trabajo en ofrecer un sonido poderoso y directo, sin abandonar el carácter atmosférico del mismo, pero esta vez trabajado con pocas concesiones, más allá de lo expuesto en un tema como "In Ashen Wake", para acabar por lograr una permanencia en nuestros oídos que resonará por un tiempo. (8).
1. Heroes of a Hundred Fields 06:36
"Watchmen, behold the warnings dire
In final muster for the land,
On these gilded mountain tops,
The kingdom’s hosts are fortressed fast.
Behind the darkened distant hills.
Your weary brethren, slumber near,
Well rest you on your battered shields,
Lay beneath their sheltering ward
As sentries wake the lines to guard
The heroes of a hundred fields
The air burns sweet, the sky now calm,
Yet echoes of their combat cries!
Faint, distant, o’r these grassy slopes,
O’ spirits of the mighty hill,
Envelop now, with waving wings
This holy consecrated ground,
Where blood sport came to pass in anger,
Give strength to all, this lonely hour,
Keep brethren dear now, close to hand,
For victory's day is only young! Only young!
They now have fought, and so have striven,
Faced with foes, but stood by friends,
Battled so that all be free men
Rebellions beacons now alight.
Hold brethren dear now, close to hand,
For victories day is only young!
Battled so that all be free men
Rebellions beacons now alight!"
2. Echoes in the After 06:25
"O Echo, these woods with howling’s fill,
Sound off my grief, and never may it end,
Out of our sight the turn of hand is vanished,
Now we must reckon with scars upon the land.
Since then to death is gone a soul,
Your doleful tunes, sweet gods apply,
And you, o’ trees, if life there lies,
Now through tormented barks obtain.
The shrill resounding of my cries,
And let my breath, your branches cleave,
Distinguished now into words of woe,
That so may I my sorrows leave.
And thou poor Earth, whom fortunes taint,
In natures name shall suffer harm,
Upon thy face let ravens swarm,
A carrion of earthen fate.
O’ echo, all these woods with pain,
To all reach out my wailful will,
Shall all the sea thy tears now be,
As golds to rust, and nature still.
O’ light of sun, on the greyest day,
Help flourish now a youth again,
Embattled stags can antlers mend,
Unto man’s age, death doth descend
Nature with care we can revere,
And nurture, so it long remains,
Some men resolve to grow a life,
But others tear it down again
Adapted from the poem ‘Since That To Death’
From the book ‘Arcadia’ by Philip Sidney (1590)"
3. A Hollow Existence 07:26
All meaning is eroded into mist,
As reasoned thought decays to dust,
What once was becomes undone,
Now lost within a realm obscured.
Existence lies sundered in the fields,
Trampled under spectacle and want,
The self, a vessel, long poured out,
Subdued for now, concealed by cloud.
In nightfall’s hollow, thoughts unravel,
They lay threadbare, disintegrate.
We stand unmasked, unmoored, apart,
Extolling virtues of worthless gods,
Like sculptures, forged in our regression.
Monuments, that spoke to who we were,
Become a weight of impermanence.
Their ruins still remain, not as warnings,
But as shadows cast by fading flames.
A hollow grows within all things,
Lost truth will not enrich our souls,
The world now drifts from its true self
And wanders, faithless, into dusk.
4. Perdition's Flame 04:58
The gates of heaven are now closed,
Not with sin, but the weight of truth.
Above, the light has turned away,
Below, perditions flame sweeps the earth.
Hell is less a place of exile,
But a pyre where evil burns.
Ashes fall on unworthy altars,
Built by those, who now seek clemency.
The fire shall be the judge,
Nor heed the voices of kings.
It serves to strip all soul of lies,
And leave behind what does not bend.
Wretched tyrants fall from grace,
Their bones lit red by sacred heat.
No relic survives, no creed endures,
When all are cast into the blaze.
Monuments now bleed black smoke,
Their stone unlearns the words they held.
Sentiments collapse as rotting bark,
And drift into the scorching air.
They meet in flesh, in breath, in blood
And leave behind what does not bend.
They meet in flesh, in breath, in blood
And only truth walks out unscarred.
Let the flame be sword and spier,
Have it scour the soul and sky.
For in the ruin, there is renewal,
And in the blaze, a world made whole.
5. The Unyielding Season 07:55
A sky of dread weighs down on man,
No dawn comes in the tyrant’s wake,
The wind howls, but not with freedom’s call,
Oppression’s breath is cloaked in rain.
Ashen fields where dreams once grew,
Now salted by an unknown hand,
A frost is cast upon our souls,
To break the will our fathers held.
The landscapes crawl with weary souls,
With hearts encased in quiet fear,
And voices stolen by the din,
Where dishonest visions still endear.
No swords to bear, no axes to wield,
Yet all must fight a silent war.
O’r subverting grips that veil the land
Who’d see men’s spirits rise no more.
Enduring is that force we fight,
It’s hidden hands & relentless tide,
It seeks to break what it can’t bind,
That embers spark which burns so bright.
Resounding o’r moors in embattled breath,
A cry escapes these thorns of grief,
For they will never claim our soul
We are the storm that wouldn’t tame
6. Unspoken Elegy 03:42 instrumental
7. In Ashen Wake 08:58
The trees no longer care to whisper,
Their limbs blackened with the char of years,
Boughs once lifted in praise of dawn,
Now hanging small in sombre decay.
Rivers choke on remnants of intent,
Where once life danced in floods of spring,
Now floats the wretched carcass of empires,
It’s decay leeching into sacred lands.
Above the heath, smoke coil like thoughts,
From minds bereft of joyous memory,
For the skies now carry a fateful omen,
In the absence of empathy.
In the deep vales where fire now breathes,
Scorched figures lie beneath the tor,
Features cracked in raging heat,
As eyes reflect a landscape dying.
Ash falls slowly on the pastures,
And covers tracks of former kin.
Flames now hollow in their conquest,
Must all burn & start again?
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.
8. Towards Elysium 06:46
When the clarion horns shall sound,
And the dead shall rise again,
Then shall be to all well known
The deeds of evil unjust men.
Those ones true shall seek of the heights,
And those ones naught, to the abyss,
Let it be with no release,
No hope nor pardons shall be writ.
When the sea gives up her dead,
The earth shall open wide,
And all shall stand before,
The judgment-seat of light.
Then shall the books be opened,
And men's deeds are brought to be
So shall the righteous inherit,
Of the elysian kingdoms,
And as the wicked will be cast
Cast into a sea of flame.
""Depart from me, ye cursed souls,
into the everlasting fire,
the infernos that which are now prepared,
for daemons and fallen men""
So let us all prepare
For the coming of that day,
And let us live out life
That we may be worthy
9. Where Dreams Once Grew 01:59 instrumental
10. Enchantment (Paradise Lost cover) 08:53
Like a fever, fever - inside of me
Like a fever, fever - inside of me
Stand fast, faithful one
See the moon and not the sun but I...
All I need is a simple reminder
Breakdown frail affairs
Turn from the elusive stares but I...
All I need is a simple reminder
Guilt is feeding, feeding, inside I'm cold
Guilt is feeding, feeding, inside I'm cold
In depth grasp the chains
Struggle as the waters gain but I...
All I need is a simple reminder
Observe the formation
Fight until the battle's won but I...
All I need is a simple reminder
There's no rule to say you'll cry alone,
Just find the strength to help you carry the load,
Reverse the frown and let the power surge,
But when alone you cannot resist the urge.
Can you feel it, feel it, like the pain of dying, I said,
Can you feel it, feel it, like the pain of dying
Hold on face to face
Damaged by the sad disgrace but I...
All I need is a simple reminder
Twisting the knife in vain
End the grief but who will gain but I...
All I need is a simple excuse.
01:03:38
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