On September 20th I made my way back to the area around downtown for another show, this one for the Finnish band Wintersun. I’ve been listening to more of them recently, and decided I had to check them out live.

I’ve been sort of on again/off again with Wintersun for a few years. Fans of the band are fanatical, and so many people talk about them in the metal community, I mean spoken of reverently by so many. Then to see that (at the time), they only had one album, and the second was coming out.

Then people went nuts for them! I’d looked a little into them, but nothing really sank in before. I got back into them a year or so ago, when they started their crowdfunding campaign, before the release of The Forest Seasons. The stuff I saw was interesting, so I checked it out a bit more.

Still didn’t really grab me, so I didn’t listen much. But this year, I’ve come back to it, and I’ve listened to stuff more. It’s good, but maybe I wasn’t in the mindset to actually listen to it before. It happens.

I’ve not become fanatical about them, but like the music enough to buy a ticket. I also wanted to check out Ne Obliviscaris, who I’ve also heard some stuff from.

Sarah Longfield opened the show. I used to watch her YouTube channel a few years back, before she got bigger, and changed her musical style. She’s gone more clean music, and not so much heavy music. It’s something you have to listen to to know what I’m talking about.

All three bands played good sets, the intensity growing with each band. Sarah’s set was quite mellow the three-piece not making a huge sound. They could use a bass player, but that’s just me.

Ne Obliviscaris is an interesting band. Definitely heavy, definitely progressive, with some cool elements in there, like the violin. I like the trade-offs between the two vocalists with different sounds. The death vocals, and the clean. The songs are longer, more intricate, and definitely take some digging into to be able to digest everything that’s going on.

Wintersun is a lot like that, too. Their debut had that prog-death element to it, and after that, their songs have gotten longer and longer. The Forest Seasons only has four songs on it, two over 12 minutes, and two over 14! There are a lot of parts to digest with these song, and a lot of different vocal styles coming from Jari: full-on death metal, vocal fry screams, and cleans.

The guitar playing is STELLAR, by the way. Teemu and Asim rip through the complicated rhythms and leads and make it look easy.

It’s a great show, and I’d say go see it, but the tour is pretty much done here in the US. But next time they tour, probably in a few years, make an effort to get out and see this band. They really sound great live!