Nightforest - Winternight
'Winternight' is an atmospheric masterpiece for black metal outfit, Nightforest. As the name implies, it has a nature focus, and fans should expect to hear a lot of natural styles within this album, both on the black metal and ambient front. Like nature itself, the album is very balanced and in a rhythm, trading between tracks of harsh, dissonant black metal that is pretty minimalistic in the vein of the late 90s style and also highly melodic and acoustic tracks that really invoke a more spiritual level amongst listeners. There is even a full frontal nature soundtrack to a forest with the opening "Waldmystik" that is a great setting for the album overall as far as atmosphere goes, but doesn't exactly go to show much on the musical side. However, that is what tracks like "Wilderness," which features running water and a mix of ambient keyboard background along acoustic guitar melodies, and "A Lost Forgotten Path," which is just acoustic guitar alone, are for when it comes to atmospheric musical skill. The black metal tracks like "From A Sea..." pale in comparison because of their harshness and also tendency to just rely on blastbeats, tremolo picking, and typical black metal shrieks with raw power that so many other bands use.
About halfway through the album though, the pattern changes. "Noreia's Call," "Your Hell," and "Winternight" are all back to back black metal tracks, and while they have some bits of ambient atmosphere to them, listeners at first may fear that the band will forsake all their acoustic moments altogether. Then "Halls of Ancestors" hits and it is marevelous. It is still the usual acoustic work, but also features backing chanting/ choir vocals that add a whole new level of depth of the music overall to make it possibly the best atmospheric track on the album. "An Inner Pain" is the only black metal track that really tries to merge harshness with ambiance, and fans can really tell with how it suddenly slows down in pace and adds extra distortion for a shrouded musical experience, like wandering in mist, thanks to the keyboards in the background and lengthy, drawn out chords. It almost feels like blackened doom metal. Finally the album closes on an acoustic guitar note. It sounds just like "A Lost Forgotten Path," with the fact it is just acoustic guitar and nothing else, but at the same time it makes for a very esoteric closer that is much better than closing on a black metal styled track.
About halfway through the album though, the pattern changes. "Noreia's Call," "Your Hell," and "Winternight" are all back to back black metal tracks, and while they have some bits of ambient atmosphere to them, listeners at first may fear that the band will forsake all their acoustic moments altogether. Then "Halls of Ancestors" hits and it is marevelous. It is still the usual acoustic work, but also features backing chanting/ choir vocals that add a whole new level of depth of the music overall to make it possibly the best atmospheric track on the album. "An Inner Pain" is the only black metal track that really tries to merge harshness with ambiance, and fans can really tell with how it suddenly slows down in pace and adds extra distortion for a shrouded musical experience, like wandering in mist, thanks to the keyboards in the background and lengthy, drawn out chords. It almost feels like blackened doom metal. Finally the album closes on an acoustic guitar note. It sounds just like "A Lost Forgotten Path," with the fact it is just acoustic guitar and nothing else, but at the same time it makes for a very esoteric closer that is much better than closing on a black metal styled track.
- Waldmystik
- Moonlight
- Wilderness
- From A Sea...
- A Lost Forgotten Path
- Noreia's Call
- Your Hell
- Winternight
- Halls Of Ancestors
- Cryptic Everglade
- An Inner Pain
- Outro
