Winter Storm - Relapse In Time

Released October 11th 2019

Review by; DeeDee

 

The Dark Melodic band are back with their third album, that continues the story of ‘The Protagonist’ who featured in the last release ‘Within The Frozen Design’. Waking up in a futuristic and unknown Mars type landscape, ‘Relapse In Time’ is a clever concept, it’s story telling with all the darkness and wizardry that you would expect from this well established 5 piece, based in the West Midlands. 

 

The album begins with a quiet instrumental piece, piano and soothing strings lead ever increasingly to a build up for the first track ‘Dreamscape’. The pace is more rapid and the vocals by Hannah Fieldhouse are mesmerisingly soft and haunting. The production is of such excellent quality that songs like ‘Colliding Skies’ and Defy Me’ that follow, start to entice you into the world of the title character, mind blowing.  ‘Astral World’ is more punchy and Wayne Taylor’s accompanying 7 string rhythm guitar, adds more hardness. ‘In Time’ goes back to the symphonic tones, while the lyrics are more abundant and quite strong. There is another upsurge with ‘Lifeless Pain’ which is heavier and more dramatic. 

 

’Thought Machine’ is very gothic metal sounding, Hannah switches from howls and wails to powerful, almost screaming vocals. A lot of keyboard interaction from John C Bradley and again everything is accomplished with complete precision. The journey is nearly over as ‘Another Lost Light’ and ‘Ever Dark’ take us further into the void. Drumming by Nathan Hutchins and bass from Andrew Hawkins have to be mentioned, the rhythm is incredibly solid and as they depart on ‘Final Parting Glass’ with its simple and alluring melody, I feel like I’ve been on a journey. If you open yourself up to this, you will discover it’s very artful and quite ingenious. 

 

WINTERSTORM  will play the Slade Rooms in Wolverhampton, on October 12th, a day after the release, to launch ‘Relapse In Time’.  

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