It might have taken Jari Mäenpää eight years to follow up Wintersun’s debut, but listening to the first instalment (Time II is out next year) you understand why. To say Time I is multi-layered would be like saying Godflesh are quite heavy.
There’s a staggering amount going on, and it all sounds absolutely spectacular, the guitars veering between half a dozen different metal styles while a level of symphonic widdle makes the whole thing sound vast, heroic and dense.
Time I is far more than an admirable achievement of studio skill, though. The songs are life-affirming stuff, running from gentle beauty through growling aggression to soaring hooks within each epic track, and the wait the Finns have made us endure has been completely worth it – Time I is fantastic. Roll on album number II.
