Winds - Of Eternity and Mind
Avantgarde Music - 2001
By jkh
One of the more unknown metal "super-groups" from Norway, Winds offers their first official release titled Of Eternity and Mind on Avantgarde Music. The band is comprised of Hellhammer (Arcturus/Mayhem/Covenant) on drums, Carl August Tidemann (Arcturus) on guitar and Lars Eric Si (Sensa Anima) on vocals. This MiniCD consists of five progressive metal tracks with some strong similarities to early Arcturus and runs for a short 21 minutes.
The first track, "Inception Perspective" is actually just an intro and unfortunately it is pointless and annoying. I'm not sure why the band would want to put a minute and a half of irritating cheap synthesizer sounds with computer-altered spoken vocals as the intro to their debut release, but they did.
Once you get past this meaningless first track, you are pleasantly greeted by piano, drums and bass on "In All Reflections" - similar in feeling to the first Arcturus album. The vocals are perhaps the most striking aspect of the band. For those who haven't heard Lars Eric Si's main band (Sensa Anima) then you are in for a treat - the man has great emotional vocals - calm and soothing. The song spans 4 minutes and 20 seconds, yet never really hits any high point. Infact, the song would be completely boring and mundane if it weren't for the excellent guitar work of Carl August Tidemann. Tidemann's guitar work on the entire CD is identical to the magnificant solos found in Arcturus.
The second song, "Bloodstained and Sworn" starts off with keyboards that sounds EXACTLY like the Charlie Brown theme song. I'm not kidding. The song modestly improves as it continues - but it is fatally flawed, like the rest of the mini-CD by one main element: the keyboards. Throughout almost the entire album are rambling keyboards, seemingly hitting as many notes possible in a song and almost never ceasing. This element greatly bothers me and ruins some segments which may have been decent. The production is also fairly thin, especially the drum sound - but perhaps since this is more focused on progressive elements rather than heavy elements this was actually the goal.
Of Eternity and Mind can best be described as a more progressive oriented Arcturus. Now I consider myself a fan of older Arcturus - but I plainly don't think Of Eternity and Mind is as great as it could be. Sure, there are some fantastic moments: Tidemann's solos and calm floating keys with great vocals - but overall it seems more like an amature act heading in the right direction. I'd be greatly relieved if they got rid of the keyboardist, because he drives me to near seizures by constantly playing throughout all the songs. Without him, this review may have been quite a bit different.
Avantgarde Music - 2001
By jkh
One of the more unknown metal "super-groups" from Norway, Winds offers their first official release titled Of Eternity and Mind on Avantgarde Music. The band is comprised of Hellhammer (Arcturus/Mayhem/Covenant) on drums, Carl August Tidemann (Arcturus) on guitar and Lars Eric Si (Sensa Anima) on vocals. This MiniCD consists of five progressive metal tracks with some strong similarities to early Arcturus and runs for a short 21 minutes.
The first track, "Inception Perspective" is actually just an intro and unfortunately it is pointless and annoying. I'm not sure why the band would want to put a minute and a half of irritating cheap synthesizer sounds with computer-altered spoken vocals as the intro to their debut release, but they did.
Once you get past this meaningless first track, you are pleasantly greeted by piano, drums and bass on "In All Reflections" - similar in feeling to the first Arcturus album. The vocals are perhaps the most striking aspect of the band. For those who haven't heard Lars Eric Si's main band (Sensa Anima) then you are in for a treat - the man has great emotional vocals - calm and soothing. The song spans 4 minutes and 20 seconds, yet never really hits any high point. Infact, the song would be completely boring and mundane if it weren't for the excellent guitar work of Carl August Tidemann. Tidemann's guitar work on the entire CD is identical to the magnificant solos found in Arcturus.
The second song, "Bloodstained and Sworn" starts off with keyboards that sounds EXACTLY like the Charlie Brown theme song. I'm not kidding. The song modestly improves as it continues - but it is fatally flawed, like the rest of the mini-CD by one main element: the keyboards. Throughout almost the entire album are rambling keyboards, seemingly hitting as many notes possible in a song and almost never ceasing. This element greatly bothers me and ruins some segments which may have been decent. The production is also fairly thin, especially the drum sound - but perhaps since this is more focused on progressive elements rather than heavy elements this was actually the goal.
Of Eternity and Mind can best be described as a more progressive oriented Arcturus. Now I consider myself a fan of older Arcturus - but I plainly don't think Of Eternity and Mind is as great as it could be. Sure, there are some fantastic moments: Tidemann's solos and calm floating keys with great vocals - but overall it seems more like an amature act heading in the right direction. I'd be greatly relieved if they got rid of the keyboardist, because he drives me to near seizures by constantly playing throughout all the songs. Without him, this review may have been quite a bit different.
