04.08.2018 Wintersun

Wacken Open Air XXIX

Wacken (Germany)

(Pentax K-5 with Sigma AF 70-200mm 2.8 EX DC APO HSM II)

The Finns of Wintersun were the next on my schedule. Founded was the band by front man and guitarist Jari Mäenpää after he left his former band Ensiferum (which I would also watch later that day) in 2004.
Stylistic it is not very easy to describe. It is roughly within the style of Ensiferum but the folk elements are significantly less. That are very complex tracks of epic duration (that is why only 5 songs were played within roughly one hour) but they are very varying and playing with different styles (e.g. screams, clear voice vocals, elements of black, death, power and Viking metal are alternating). Due to issues with their record company up to now only three albums were released. After the firstling “Wintersun” from the year 2004 it took at least 8 years until the second album “Time I” was released. Due to the aforementioned issues with their record company the steadily planned album “Time II” was not yet released but instead in 2017 “The Forest Seasons” which reminds one of Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” was released in which the four seasons of the forest were set to music.
On stage there was offered a lot of action, very well matching the music. Singer Mäenpää swirled crisscross across the same and also his co musicians Teemu Mäntysaari on guitar and Jukka Koskinen on bass was also not held on the same spot for a long time. Again and again there was wild posing, the thatch was waived and the interaction with the audience was searched. That was celebrating the band loudly during all songs and despite the duration of the songs (10-15 minutes) there was at no point in time boredom or longueurs.
I had never come across that band before and with their complex rhythms and arrangements the song are really nothing to listen to en passant. Anyhow, I hope that at one point in time they have collected enough money for their ambitious plan of an own studio to finally release the sequel of “Time I”. For friends of complex melodic metal this was really something special.