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Released on May 20, 2016 via ViciSolum Productions
Formed in 2001 and hailing from Northern Israel, Winterhorde is a seven-piece symphonic progressive metal band that is extremely talented. Produced and mixed by V. Santura with mixing handled by Jens Bogren, Winterhorde‘s first album in six years, Maestro, is an epic masterpiece which I was very happy to discover. Winterhorde consists of Z. Winter (vocals), Ig Kun (vocals), Dima Stoller (guitar), Omer Naveh (guitar), Sascha Latman (bass), Alexander Feldman (keyboards) and Maor Netz (drums).
Maestro is a long journey with a running time of 65 minutes, but when you sit down and let your ears soak in Winterhorde‘s incredible musicianship, the time flies by. The first track, ‘Antipath’, sets the pace for the rest of Maestro, with it’s sweeping clean vocals, beautiful violin strings mixed with Stoller and Naveh’s powerful guitar riffs, and an all out attack from the drums.
‘Worm of Souls’, picks up where the first track left off, but switches up the vocal arrangement with deep death metal growls and background vocals straight out of a choir. ‘They Came With Eyes on Fire’ does a great job at equally sharing the spotlight between the clean and death metal vocals. Also, the wonderful addition of guest vocalist Noa Gruman gives the track a taste of what it would be like if you were attending a metal-themed opera concert.
‘Chronic Death’ starts off with driving riffs and Netz’s bludgeoning blast beats, but in the middle of the track Winterhorde slows the tempo down with beautiful layered guitar and piano solos before hammering your ears with an amazing ending. ‘The Heart of Coryphee’ showcases more emotional violin pieces, gorgeous acoustic guitar, operatic vocals and Latman’s deep bass lines. The song never loses it’s heavy edge due to the repeated heavy riff that I still have stuck in my memory. ‘Cold’ haunts my dreams, starting off with its slow catchy riffs and soulful soaring vocals that soon turns into a death metal nightmare with killer blast beats and guttural growling.
Maestro has that perfect balance of excellence I’m always looking for when listening to symphonic metal. It has the death metal drive that makes me want to go to my local concert hall and mix it up in the pit. But it also posses the beauty of a big orchestra band, and I feel like I should be jumping on a podium and conducting the band with a maestro’s baton.
I’ve always thought it is so easy to listen to the same albums over and over from your childhood and not take the time to discover new music. Yes, you’re not going to like everything you listen to, but spectacular albums like Maestro give me faith that great new metal music is still being made.
