Wintersun – Time II – The Toilet of Hell

It is high time ayyyyyyyyyy.

Let me get this out of the way right away: I don’t intend to make a big deal about the numerous crowdfunding campaigns of the past few years or their supposed value to backers. There have been plenty of articles about them, plenty of sauna jokes have been passed around and so on. You are of course welcome to comment if you want, but I want to approach and review this album in good faith. I will put aside any prejudices that have been created by the nonsense surrounding the band and just look at the music on its own merits.

With that out of the way, let’s get to the fun part. This has been a long time coming – almost 20 years, to be exact, after it was originally announced as a single album titled Time (no numerical additions) in 2006. Despite all the hustle and bustle surrounding the album’s production in the latter half of those 18 years, the band was really put to the test in the production of this album. Hardware failures, day jobs, health problems, writer’s block and the complete loss of recordings are all problems that hindered the band’s progress in those early years. The scope eventually expanded, with Time I Released in late 2012. I’ve spent almost a third of my life waiting for this album to come out.

Jesus Christ.

But that is all in the past, and contrary to all expectations Time II is finally here. True to Jari’s word, Time II picks up right where its predecessor left off, no matter how many releases there are. Depending on how you look at it, that means it’s either a great and stirring piece of extreme power metal that hits you emotionally to the core, or bloated, overproduced garbage that fails in its attempts to be cinematic. Regardless of your opinion, it’s stylistically identical to its predecessor, bombastic and over the top in production and composition.

Behold, the time sausage

I can already hear some Winter sun Self-proclaimed stalwarts groan at the prospect of having to strain their ears to hear the guitars and bass through a cacophony of synths and choirs, but believe me: this album is much better mixed in the same general framework than Time I. Where previously the band was buried under a dozen layers of orchestration, it now rightfully takes center stage in the mix. The production elements still come to the fore here and there to carry an important melody or accentuate certain passages, but this time they’re used primarily for ornamentation and texturing. The guitars are the real stars of the show here, and I was very happy to hear the bass consistently and clearly coming through the mix for probably the first time in Wintersun’s entire discography. It may be sticking just about to the wall, but this is indisputably the best sound the band has had since their debut.

And boy am I glad the actual band is actually audible again, because they really put their foot down on this album. Much was made of Jari’s brief stint as full-time singer during Asim’s time in the band, and he’s a pretty strong singer, but his real talent has always been on the fretboard. “The Way of the Fire,” the first full track after an intro and a staple of their live set for around a decade, explodes in a whirlwind of blast beats that underscore a triumphant tremolo-played melody. The majority of the riffs on this song are fast and punchy, reminiscent of the best of early Ensiferum and debut album, and it never sticks to one idea for too long. Guitar porn addicts will especially appreciate a lot here – the solos are numerous, excessive and immaculate. As indulgent as this shredding is, it has direction and flow, a narrative within the larger arc of the song.

“One with the Shadows” is a much more subdued follow-up, a sort of “Death and the Healing” in the vein of “Sadness and Hate.” In my opinion, it’s the weakest song on the album; it’s not bad by any means, but it doesn’t quite match the energy or emotional impact of the rest of the record. “Ominous Clouds” follows with a clean guitar solo interlude into the all-time hit “Storm,” which I can definitely say is my new favorite Wintersun song. A slow build to a tense and angry riff immediately conjures up vivid images of the song’s namesake, with the vocals surging with a melodramatic, theatrical flair that comes with hints of neo-classical melody throughout. There are shades of “Beyond the Dark Sun” and “Starchild” in the strings, and it all comes together in what I think is a more effective version of what the band was trying to achieve with “Autumn” from the start. The seasons of the forestIf “The Way of the Fire” represents the best of Wintersun’s power metal leanings, then “Storm” is its melodeath counterpart.

Closing out is “Silver Leaves,” a gigantic 13-minute track that’s the closest thing to a ballad on this album. This song fully draws on the band’s Japanese music influence; I personally don’t know enough about Japanese music theory to properly identify the mode, but you’ll definitely get it when you hear it. If not, then the erhu and koto accompanying the gentle sway of this surprisingly bittersweet melody will certainly give it away. It also strikes me as uncharacteristically introspective, as if it’s reflecting on the time it takes to create music and the effort it takes to turn one’s ideas into reality. Maybe I’m just reading too much into it, I don’t know. In any case, I like the decision to slow things down for the end, and it rounds the whole thing out. Time Saga in a pretty little bow.

I usually try to avoid these track-by-track analyses of an album, but it was unavoidable here. These songs aren’t just long: they’re dense as hell, with an absurd number of tracks per tune and little one-off details that must have made the whole thing a nightmare for the sound engineer. Whether it should have actually been a twelve-year job is up for debate, but I won’t try to get into that here. Everything surrounding this album – the wait, the money, the side projects and lineup changes, whether Wintersun is even relevant in the metal landscape anymore – is all discussion for a whole other piece. For now, I’ll leave you with this: If you liked Time IYou will love Time IIIf you like other bands in or close to this style, such as Atavistia, Whispered, Brymiror even Tyrthen you should give this a listen. Otherwise, your opinion may vary. I doubt this album will convert non-believers, and anyone hoping for a return to the more down-to-earth style of the debut will probably be disappointed. I am not one of those people, however, and have thoroughly enjoyed the numerous spins I have given the record.

4.5/5 Burning toilets burn high up on the mountain

Time II will be released on August 30th via Nuclear Blast.