Artist..: Winter Eternal

Album...: Realm of the Bleeding Shadows

Genre...: Black Metal                | Label...: Azermedoth Records
Year....: 2019                       | Cat.No..:

R.date..: 2023-07-20                 | S.date..: 2019-06-01

Source..: WEB (16bit)                | Encoder.: libFLAC
Bitrate.: 936 kbps avg.              | F.Rate..: 44.1kHz

http://deezer.com/album/99076482

Disc 1 / 1

01. Futile Quest                                                    4:30
02. Realm of the Bleeding Shadows                                   5:04
03. Darkness Guides Me                                              3:48
04. The Promise                                                     3:01
05. Embrace the Old Ways                                            4:53
06. The Secrets of Time                                             4:06
07. A Tearful Song                                                  4:42
08. Monument to the Ruined Age                                      2:36

(235.26MB) 00:32:40

Another fantastic example of Greek music comes from this one-man
band/project called Winter Eternal. Playing a kind of quite traditional
and melodic black metal “Realm of the Bleeding Shadows” is the second full
length by DIY man Soulreaper.

The typical tremolo picks and the pummeling blasts can be found here as
well and build the basis of Winter Eternal's music. While each black metal
band puts a lot of emphasis on building a sinister atmosphere Soulreaper
has gone even a bit further compared to his peers. I would not go as far
as labelling this album as atmospheric black metal as the main focus is
still on the riffs and the relentless drum attacks but there are a lot of
desperate and haunting harmonies dwelling in the background. Eerie themes
presented by the lead guitar are always present – sometimes more subtle
and in other places as leading elements defining certain parts of the
song.

The drumming is tight and precise without being pushed too much into the
foreground. The instrumentation is flawless without ever turning into
redundant wankery. The songs are written in a very stringent and (for that
kind of music) accessible way making them immediately enjoyable for the
consumer despite their sheer brutality and grimness. The single parts of
the songs are woven together in a way to make each song stand on its own
feet and the technical complexity is used as additional tool to underline
certain sections.

One issue I often have with black metal is that a lot of bands seem to
think it is enough to play and look as evil as possible. This is not the
case here as Soulreaper perfectly knows how to piece together all the
elements to weave intricate yet highly enjoyable soundscapes. The listener
will get hypnotized by dark and powerful themes and melodies. There is a
great amount of melancholy defined by the guitar harmonies in each of the
songs and by repeating similar trademark lines in later sections the whole
album gains a lot when being consumed in one go. The songs are
professionally constructed and while there is a lot going on there are
enough hooks and clear song structures to make the music pretty easy to
get into.

The vocals are desperate sounding like an ancient demon or a desperate
soul lost in eternal darkness. The spot-on and intense delivery highlights
the rawness of the music. The same can be said about the production which
is filthy and natural-sounding yet clear and powerful and the fitting
cover artwork. All in all “Realm of the Bleeding Shadows” is a great
example of traditional black metal slightly adopted for present times and
one of my favorites in this genre for 2019.

ixxu!imp