Thorbjörn Englund's Winterlong has finished its third album, which is simply titled as 'Winterlong'. This time 'round Englund is joined by Mikael Holm, Anders Johansson (ex-Yngwie Malmsteen, HammerFall), Mistheria and Erik Tornberg. Winterlong's music has a strong foundation on neo-classical hard rock (à la Yngwie Malmsteen), but other elements are also present. Basically one could speak of neo-classical power metal band.

With the first song Winterlong seems to pay homage to some of their influences. There might also be hidden messages in the lyrics: "The priest is coming" could be considered as advertising of the new Judas Priest album ;)

Since Thorbjörn Englund is greatly influenced by Yngwie J. Malmsteen's work, most of Englund's leads sound reminiscent of Malmsteen's work. This is actually stigmatising (Englund doesn't have a style of his own). Amongst the songs on this album, Englund scatters various rip-offs. For example, on 'Bloodshred' one can hear a similar run to Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's 'The Flight of the Bumblebee'. Interestingly enough it seems that emulation of different artists is more acceptable among power metal.

As a basic power metal album, Winterlong's self-titled album delivers the goods rather well. Both the music and production are fitting to the genre. Occasional classical acoustic guitar parts bring refreshing changes to the album (tracks 4 and 9). Also Stella Tormanoff's (Star Queen) guest appearance on 'Oblivion' can't be left unnoticed (her voice is unique).

Release date: 24.01.2005


- MAGE (20.01.2005)

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LINE-UP:
Mistheria: Keyboards Holm, Mikael: Vocals Englund, Thorbjörn: Guitars Tornberg, Erik: Bass Johansson, Anders: Drums Tormanoff, Stella: Guest Vocals on Track 10
Producer:	Unavailable
Mixing by:	Unavailable
Mastering by:	Unavailable

	TRACKLIST:
	01. The Priest 02. Ten Digits of the Future 03. Judgement Day 04. A Vision of the Wolf 05. Ragnarök 06. Each Day We Die 07. We'll Ride from the Dead 08. Bloodshred 09. Demise 10. Oblivion 11. The End of the Longest Winter