The Second Coming

As the title says, this is the second album (duh!) from nordic metal warriors Winterlong. Although this time every member except the guitarist is replaced. But it still sounds ok, Mikael Holm is totally unknown to me but has a great potential as a singer. Think a little Ronnie James Dio, a little Roy Khan, maybe a little Tobias Sammet.. and you'll get the idea. As for drummers, two guys are used - Andreas Lill and Andreas Johansson (yes the drummer from
Hammerfall) and both do their job pretty good so no complaints. Thorbjörn handles the guitars and bass himself, and sorry to say it but the bass is kind of lost in the mix, which isn't that rare in power metal but still. His guitar playing is flawless as usual, although it's alot of Yngwie in there. Then there's some subtle keyboards handled my Mistheria, which really isn't that much to talk about.

As for the music, sure it's mostly pretty standard heavy/power metal but actually it's also a bit progressive in its places, something that surprised me but then again apparently Thorbjörn took a little inspiration from Dream Theater (instead of Manowar) this time. It should be said that he wrote the entire album by himself also.

Highlights include Twisting my tail, Northman and Wild winter nights.

As for the rating, you might go "so it's better than the debut", this isn't the case. The debut album grew on me since I reviewed it, I'd give it something between 80 and 90 today. As hinted a decent album, but nothing to shit your pants over.