Valley of the Lost

Winterlong seems to play a variation of heavy/power/neo-classical metal that combines itself into a mold of ballsy metal. WIth Valley of the Lost they seem to take the approach of grabbing your ears' attention by showing their talent off. I'll go ahead and just say these musicians are quite talented, their seems to be a great flow and transition between songs and the mood gives off the solid notion that this could be a seasoned band on their 5th full length release.

Winterlong's individual musicians seem to have some great talent, the guitarist in this band has extraordinary talent and seems like he would fit perfectly alongside Yngwie Malmsteen or Warmen. His influences are very neo-classical and that's where those influences on the overall sound of the band come from. His solos simply kick ass and if you're a fan of any shredder of any style you'll LOVE his work. Other influences of the music and be from Manowar from the style of singing, the vocalist's approach to hitting those high notes is similar to Eric Adams but that's about it. His voice can be fairly bland at times and that's what I think drags down the album occasionally, but obviously needs improvement with his approach. The drumming is solid atypical power/heavy drumming double bass galore which mingles with the kickass galloping guitar riffs that inhabit this album everywhere.

There are some amazing highlights like the opener, which beholds a great chorus and killer solo, best on the album I think. Also try out Sky Travellers and tell me that isn't some fast riffing! Another highlight is the short but quick and speedy Nosferatu which grabs your ears once again and rips out another killer solo. This song is also the only one that incorporates keyboards as a popular instrument, except it's used for atmosphere and playing along with the guitars instead of taking over showing that whoever has the production knows how to handle the keys. But then you can get to the last song Written in Blood where there is a Bodom-esque solo and makes me shake my head.

There are real no absolute letdowns on this album, some riffs occasionally sound as if they have been reused or doubled over slightly being used in a different song. The vocals need obvious improvement, he either seems strained, bored, or not sure of what's going on and it doesn't help that he has a thick accent. The keys seem inconsistent since when they are used as a backup instrument to the others it's done well, but when overused it gets cheesy which happens once or twice. Valley of the Lost has no ballads which is a great move in my opinion because I don't think I could handle a soft song where the vocals are the main focus.

Valley of the Lost is a decent debut that will assuredly be enjoyed by hardcore fans of power/heavy metal but isn't groundbreaking at all nor exceptionally standout amongst others, but Winterlong's debut will certainly be appreciated as a worthy addition to a true power metaller's collection.

Now this is a band I heard of long before they released this album, maybe not so weird since they're from my hometown, Kalix in Sweden :)

Anyways.. what we got here is your standard heavy/power metal, you can clearly hear the 80's influences; Manowar, Maiden, Dio etc. It isn't something to laugh about as usual though like Hammerfall is everytime they release an album. I actually enjoy this. In decent doses. Sometimes it just gets too much Malmsteen for me to cope with and so but.. hell this is a nice album, as the title for this hinted it isn't very original but.. fuckin nice. The singer chooses to take influences from guys like Ronnie James Dio and Eric Adams instead of making us believe he's a chick. He's got some balls in his voice I can tell you that.

I'm sorry to hear that the band is split-up, but I guess that's a price you gotta pay when not everyone have the same ambitions (seems like it was the lead guitarist who was the driving force in the band).

This isn't something I wanna hear every day, actually I'm pretty fed up with this style but when the urge comes I definitely could put on tracks like "Sky travellers", "Valley of the lost" or "Winterlong".