WINTERLAND |
| Winterland
are : Thorsten Fries on Vocals Stephan Hugo on Guitar and Backing Vocals Chris Guckeisen on Drums Holger Kuntz on Bass Markus Pfeffer on Guitar and Backing Vocals The tracks are : 1. The Damnation Game 2. Clearer And Clearer 3. A Walk On The Sun 4. Shadows 5. Everything Counts 6. Changes 7. Snow Falling 8. Ain't Losing My Mind 9. Missing 10. The Tables Are Turned 11. Neverland 12. Blind Winterland are a German hard rock band who play a variety of styles on their debut album 'Blind'. One thing you will notice straight away, is that Thorsten, their vocalist is a deep baritone and this album will take a few listens before you get used to it. But persevere as it is well worth it. The opening track is 'The Damnation Game', which starts with some melodic intricate guitar, followed by heavy riffs, then in comes the deep melodic vocals from Thorsten. Theres plenty of changes in direction, mood and tempo and the middle section becomes more mellow, but not for long. This is quite a catchy tune too. The next track is 'Clearer And Clearer', another catchy tune with some stunning guitar work and a very tight rhythm unit. The third track 'A Walk In The Sun', you could say that this track is more pop orientated as far as rock can go. It's a very catchy tune and not as heavy as some of the other tracks on the album. Mind you there's still some excellent guitar work. The next track is 'Shadows', a melodic hard rock track with some excellent guitar work, by now your getting used to Thorsten's vocals and you see that his deeper vocals fits in perfectly with Winterland's music. Anyway Thorsten's vocals are powerful, but filled with emotion. This track constantly changes from quite a heavy song to a more melodic approach. 'Everything Counts', is a Depeche Mode song, given the Winterland treatment and it works well. Again some of the guitar work is just superb. The sixth track 'Changes', has a great driving rhythm with some nice bass lines and a drum assault. This is another track with a catchy tune and chorus and great guiatr work. The next track 'Snow Falling' and is a ballad written about a fans reaction to hearing about the death of their musical hero. The musical hero that inspired this song was Michael Hutchence of INXS. A nice track with some nice intriate guitar work and emotional vocals from Thorsten. 'Ain't Losing My Mind', is one of my favourites, a hard hitting rock track with a good driving rhythm, great bass, drums, and again superb guitar work. The ninth track is 'Missing', another heavy rock track with a great driving rhythm, great bass and drums. Later changes direction and mood with the guitar work being a lot more mellow and intricate, theres some nice stereo effects on some of the guitar work then it returns back to the heavier stuff. The next track is 'The Table Are Turned', great track with nice changes from heavy to more melodic progressive metal. Superb guitar work. 'Neverland', a nice acoustic ballad. And the final track and title track is 'Blind', another track that is more progressive metal/melodic hard rock with some superb guitar. Blind is quite a mixture of AOR, Hard, Heavy, Progressive Metal music. At times it's heavy, melodic, complex and as I have said earlier, you may need to give it a few listens before you start to enjoy the deep baritone vocals of Thorsten. The dueling axes of Markus and Stephan were a joy to listen too, as they both work very hard for each other, but I could say that about the whole band. Highly Recommended!!! Blind is self-released (WLCD1998) You can contact Winterland c/o Markus Pfeffer, Am Wald 10, D-66851 Hauptuhl, Germany. TEL : +49 (0) 63 72 99 44 28 Website : http://gandalf.rz-zw.fh-kl.de/~pfeffe1 Email : Pfeffer.Markus@t-online.de |