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Class 6(66)

Winter: Into darkness / Eternal frost

27/05/09  ||  Khlysty

Released: 1999

Introduction

Winter was a death/doom trio from New York, back in the early-to-mid-nineties. They released a full-length (“Into Darkness”) and an E.P. (“Eternal Frost”) in 1990 and 1994, respectfully, and then went on and split, due to a lack of interest from their record company and the metal audience in general. In 1999 Nuclear Blast combined the two recordings and unleashed them against the unsuspecting public, securing Winter a place into the alumnus of the bands that made history during the formative years of death and modern doom metal. And, well, that’s it, folks, now go home and listen to the new flavor-of-the-week (weak?) nu-death-emo-core-sumpthin’ band with crewcuts and baggy pants. You have nothing to worry about; no problem if you never listen to Winter. Anyway, they’ll spoil your appetite and darken your attitude. Fuck ‘em. They’re from Noo Yawk, anyway, so who the fuck cares, right?…

OK, now that the wimps ’ve left the building, I’ll let you into a secret: Winter is one of the most underrated bands EVER. During a period when doom was out and death metal was getting faster, brutaler, complexer and saturateder (yup, me likes new words, so fuck you Webster’s…), this New York trio went to create the most depressing, dark and simplistically brutal music that could be recorded with the (meager) means available to them. With songs that, even during their faster parts, seemed drowned in molasses and coated with tar, the vocals of a dragon in a state of total bewilderment and an atmosphere of the blackest nihilism, Winter’s music even today stands tall among their peers and seems to be the blueprint for bands like Coffins or Unearthly Trance. So, please, do yerselves a favor and read on. Maybe, you’ll learn something about the past of the music you love.

Songwriting

9. Winter never pretended to be anything more than a brutal (as opposed to brootal) trio from the underground hells of NYC. Their music seems simplistic as fuck and here lies their brilliance: with the use of the basest materials, they created songs (yeah, mofos, actual songs) that were full of menace, anger, desperation, depression… I could go on and on, but my point is that Winter were masters of atmospheric terror, whether they moved with snail-like slowness (“Eternal Frost”), or they sped things up a little bit (“Oppression Freedom/Oppression (Reprise)”). Listening to Winter is like walking into an incredibly bleak landscape, where everything is blasted, grey and dead. This is music to wilt even the strongest good humor and that’s only the beginning…

Production

7. Even in its Nuclear Blast repackaged form, “Into Darkness / Eternal Frost” cannot hide the fact that it was probably recorded for fucking peanuts. Even so, the music comes out strong and lively (if this descriptive can be used for sounds so desperate and dark) and the sound is okay, if a little muddy. But, methinks that this aspect adds to the nihilistic nature of Winter’s overall bleak worldview.

Guitars

9. Stephen Flam has his guitar downtuned to Hell and works as if his whole playing is aimed to destroy everything around him. The guitar here is a crusty, moldering, nasty beast that crawls inside your brain and slowly suffocates all your good thoughts, all your hopes and dreams, all your positive aspects. This is Iommi-turned-rabid and unleashed into an unsuspecting crowd. Be sure to have the vaccine handy…

Vocals

10. This is how death metal vocals should be done: John Alman’s death growl is loud, proud and impressively clear, with words spewing forth like battery acid cluster-bombs, corroding the fabric of space and time. This is not a voice, but a warning: Abandon all hope, ye who enter here…

Bass

8. Alman’s also handling the low(est) end here, with admirable power and authority, giving the songs an almost underground-rumbling quality of sound.

Drums

8. Joe Goncalves has the unenviable task of trying to give rhythmic propelling to songs that seem too big, too unwieldy to conform into a concise pattern. He does so admirably, even when he’s been sabotaged by the songs’ sheer volume and slowness. So, kudos to him.

Lyrics

9. Moving away from the usual death / doom lyrical fodder, Winter seem to have a critical stance towards war and environmental issues. Of course, their worldview is so utterly bleak that it’s almost unbearable to sit down and decipher the lyrics, word by word. The lyric sheet reads more like a doomsday scenario than, y’ know, lyrics to metal songs.

Cover art

10. Two abject figures moving through a post-apocalyptic landscape of total ruin. Powerful and to the point.

Logo

7. Spiky, readable, okay, I guess…

Booklet

4. Not much to talk about…

Overall and ending rant

9,5. For me Winter was a fucking revelation, when I first listened to them. They still are giving me goosebumps. They are one of the most dark, depressive, nihilistic bands ever to grace metaldom. Their small discography towers everything around it and is still used as a blueprint for bands that try their hand into death / doom, while their ethos is really untouchable. I suppose that anyone interested in “extreme music” in general and death / doom in particular is sorely missing if one hasn’t been graced by the death-frosty music of this band.

  • Information
  • Released: 1999
  • Label: Nuclear Blast
  • Website: www.doomgrind.cjb.net/
  • Band
  • John Alman: vocals, bass
  • Stephen Flam: guitar
  • Joe Goncalves: drums
  • Tony Pinnisi: keyboards
  • Tracklist
  • 01. Oppression Freedom /Oppression (Reprise)
  • 02. Servants of the Warsmen
  • 03. Goden
  • 04. Power and Might
  • 05. Destiny
  • 06. Eternal Frost
  • 07. Into Darkness
  • 08. Servants of the Warsmen
  • 09. Eternal Frost
  • 10. Winter
  • 11. Blackwhole
  • 12. (hidden track)

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