Wintersun's 'Time II' - Album Review

Guns N' Roses' polarising 2008 release Chinese Democracy is often considered to be the most delayed and, as a result, overhyped album of all time. I am a big fan of Chinese Democracy, so I disagree with the second part of that statement - but given that it had been talked about since the band started recording it in 1998 up until its eventual release ten years later it is hardly surprising that it failed to live up to its own hype. Now that the Finnish band Wintersun have finally released Time II, though, I think it is fair to say that their fourth album easily overshadows Chinese Democracy in terms of delay and, at least in relation to the size of Wintersun's fanbase, hype. The story of Time II can be traced back to 2006, when Wintersun recorded the basic guitar, bass, and drum tracks for an album they planned to release in either 2006 or 2007 called Time - which would follow up their acclaimed self-titled debut release from 2004. The saga of Time has since become one of metal's longest running jokes over the past 18 years, with all but the most rapturous Wintersun fans finding the whole situation ludicrous - during which time the band's founder and frontman Jari Mäenpää has engaged in quite a lot of questionable behaviour, including a number of dubious crowdfunding campaigns (despite Wintersun being signed to Nuclear Blast Records) and stroking his own ego with stories of how no recording studio could possibly cope with his grand visions. Following plenty of initial delays, Time was split into two - with Time I eventually dropping in 2012. At this point I have to put my cards on the table and say that I am nothing more than a casual Wintersun fan. I bought Time I at the time and somewhat enjoyed it, but found the five songs it contained to be quite bloated and overproduced. It is not an album I have returned to that often since, but I did give the band more time in 2017 and 2018 - firstly due to the somewhat surprise release of the band's third album The Forest Seasons (which I reviewed here) in 2017 and secondly as I saw them open for Arch Enemy the following year. Given that I had not ever really gelled with Time I, I was pleasantly surprised by The Forest Seasons - and I gave it quite a few spins around the time it came out. It felt far less chaotic and suffocated than Time I, and it showed that Mäenpää was capable of producing compelling and progressive music without going over the top - especially as the album was essentially a solo album without much input from the rest of the band. I had hoped that Mäenpää would take positive lessons from throwing together (by his standards) The Forest Seasons - but it seems that he did not, as it still took a further seven years for Time II to drop. I imagine that it had become a bit of a sunk costs project over the years, and Mäenpää likely felt the need to justify all of his strange behaviour by producing the most epic metal album of all time. Perhaps unsurprisingly, though, Time II is no such thing. It is a solidly enjoyable album, as was Time I, and features the band's melting pot sound of melodic death, progressive, power, and folk metal sounding as adventurous as ever - but it is so overproduced it buckles under the weight of its own ambition.

Given that guitarist Teemu Mäntysaari, bassist Jukka Koskinen, and drummer Kai Hahto have had basically nothing to do with this album since they recorded their parts back in 2006, which I should reiterate was 18 years ago, it does make me wonder just what Mäenpää really thought he was doing tinkering with these songs for so long. There is only so much that can be gained by forever piling on more layers of synth - and all it has really served to do is damage the band's reputation following a well-received debut. Had leaner and meaner versions of Time I and Time II's songs come out as Time in 2006/2007 then Wintersun could well be seen as one of the best bands of their ilk - but following years of delay and the fact that everyone else in the band besides Mäenpää are now members of much more successful bands I do wonder what the future holds. That aside, though, Time II is still an enjoyable listen, as has been every Wintersun release, and it opens slowly with the instrumental piece Fields of Snow. As with Time I, there are a lot of Japanese themes throughout the album - both musically and lyrically. There are a lot of Japanese flavours during Fields of Snow, then, with the slow-building instrumental essentially an overture for the album - with gentle piano melodies setting the tone early on, whilst aching strings and what sound like Japanese wind instruments add floating themes as the song progresses. There is nothing heavy at all about the song and it is a showcase for Mäenpää's soundscape work. It is probably one of the best-produced moments on the album, though. There is a lot going on, but the strings and synths are not having to compete with a metal band - and the melodic, slow-burning, but still relatively up-beat music would work well in the context of a video game about ancient Japan. Transitioning into The Way of the Fire, though, and Wintersun's core sound is revealed. The opening of the 10 minute-plus piece introduces some folky acoustic guitar melodies - before Hahto's drums crash in, laying into a black metal-esque drum pattern, over which machine gun rhythm guitars create further heaviness. The main issue I have with this album, though, is the overall mix. As soon as Mäenpää starts to sing, his voice is buried in everything else around him. There are moments where he is heard quite clearly, but often he is just part of the various tapestry of sounds around him - with dramatic string synths and the drums often dominating the mix, with the guitars, bass, and vocals reduced to bit-part players. Mäenpää still sounds strong vocally, though, with both his clean and harsh vocals hitting the spot - and when the vocal melodies are allowed to cut through it is clear why Wintersun are held in such high regard. The first proper guitar solo moment on the album is another such moment, as Hahto's drums lay off the blasting for a moment and allow for something more intricate and melodic - but this is short lived because soon a huge choral arrangement comes in to once again suffocate the mix. There is nothing wrong with Hahto's playing here, but the drums have such a clacking and up-front sound that they often overpower the songs - with the melodic features often crushed between the drums and the overabundance of synth layers. The song has a strong chorus, which would have hit harder had the mix been more vocal-focused, and occasional guitar leads do shine - but The Way of the Fire is sadly, like much of the album, a victim of poor production and mix choices.

One with the Shadows is the shortest 'proper' song here at just over six minutes. Of the album's six songs, two are 'shorter' instrumentals and three are 10 minute-plus epics - leaving One with the Shadows as something more bite-sized, relatively speaking. It might be my favourite individual piece on the album and, whilst it suffers from the problems already mentioned, it just feels a bit less overblown. It opens slowly, with a great, aching guitar solo - which is filled with emotion and melody. Generally the song is less chaotic and frantic than the previous piece - with the track being more mid-paced overall, with a slight gothic edge thanks to this chugging approach. Hahto's drums are still overpowering at times, and there are some faster portions early on which return to that black metal-adjacent sound, but a strong chorus featuring some soaring clean vocals which actually cut through the mix quite nicely and a strong focus on progressive-sounding guitar solo sections give the piece a lot more focus. The guitar soloing here is really well constructed - often building on some of the vocal melodies and main motifs to create real musical journeys - and the reduced number of ideas allows the hooks to really sink in. Songs like this show what Mäenpää can produce when he is not trying to make everything 11/10 on the epic scale - and the track nicely transitions into the short instrumental Ominous Clouds, which is somewhat similar to how the album opened, but with much more of a guitar focus. Darker synths and weather sounds set a darker tone, whilst clean and spacey guitar melodies transition back and forth between slow-burning segments and faster-paced runs. It is over as quickly as it starts, though, transitioning again into the 12 minute-plus Storm - which continues on the vibes of Ominous Clouds early on, albeit with a more structured guitar motif. Alongside The Way of the Fire, Storm is the heaviest and most intense piece here. After the opening minute or so of clean guitar set-up, the fast-paced drums which characterised the aforementioned lengthy piece kick back in and the early moments of the song are extreme metal influenced. The gothic trappings of One with the Shadows are retained, though, and there are choirs utilised early - utilised in a call-and-response manner with Mäenpää. The mix is a little more balanced here, though, despite the drums still dominating - and the choirs and gothic strings feel a little more impactful than they have elsewhere as there feels to be a bit less going on overall. Mäenpää's vocals can still get buried in the mix, though, especially when he sings clean, but the balance is a little better this time - and it is real shame overall that the album's mix is so varied. There is still a lot going on here, though, and I imagine that the track would sound much better had it been stripped down and not been so full of synth layers. Bands with far less resources have produced better sounding and similarly epic albums and it does make me wonder whether Mäenpää really knows what he is doing. He is like metal's Tom Scholz in the sense that he got lucky with a debut which was essentially all self-produced and self-played - which went to his head to make him think it made him some sort of prodigy.

As with some of Boston's later albums, then, I cannot be convinced that Time II is the work of such genius. Mäenpää is clearly a good songwriter and an excellent guitar player, but working with a talented producer would have certainly led to a better outcome - and potentially a more band-focused one as I would imagine that the input from the other band members here has been whittled away as these songs evolved into the bloated messes they generally are. The final piece here, then, is the album's longest at over 13 minutes - with Silver Leaves trying to be both a prog epic and an outro all at the same time. It builds on some of the melodies which were introduced in Fields of Snow as the album opened - with the first section of the song sounding like a reprise of the album's intro. As such, the track takes a while to get going and it does sound a little jarring to repeat the same themes - but they are built upon as the drums kick in a more epic-sounding version of the album's intro is then delivered with a heavier guitar backing. I do like the way that song progresses, though, and those intro melodies are soon being woven around Mäenpää's strong clean vocals - as he sings against a floaty and Japanese-inspired soundscape. This is one of the album's most impactful moments as it is not totally drenched in unnecessary additions. The drums are less overpowering, too, and the vocals actually shine - which is a treat given that they generally fall foul to a chaotic mix elsewhere. There is actually a strong atmosphere here as a result and the song seems to build naturally - rather than feel like a number of segments stitched together as some of the other longer pieces here do. It feels like one fully realised idea rather than a number of disparate ones - and I do actually like how the song grows from a reprise of the album's intro on reflection despite it sounding a bit odd at first. It allows the song to have this epic folk-adjacent sound - with a chorus that easily sticks in the brain and the occasional opportunity for harsher vocals and injections of subtle heaviness. The song might be a bit on the long side given that it does not significantly shift from its core idea, but I think the atmosphere and the general focus on melodies helps to somewhat justify this length - and I also do quite like the lengthy fade out which features some Japanese-esque guitar melodies without any real backing and the slow burn of some weather and windchime sounds which bring the album to its actual close. Silver Leaves works really well for me and I wish that more of the album was as focused - and I think it is telling that my two favourite pieces here are those which are a bit more restrained in terms of ideas: One with the Shadows and Silver Leaves. Both The Way of the Fire and Storm have their moments, particularly the former, but they also suffer from the album's trademark overblown production and a messy mix. It is a real shame, as the Time project could have been one of metal's most interesting melting pot albums from a band that is not considered one of big names. Sadly, though, it has been compromised from the off by ego and a bandleader clearly not used to being told 'no' - and neither Time I nor Time II deliver on the promise of what could have been.

The album was released on 30th August 2024 via Nuclear Blast Records. Below is the band's promotional lyric video for The Way of the Fire.