Warthur
Empyrium's A Wintersunset bears a fairly close resemblance to the sort of gothic doom metal produced by My Dying Bride at around this time - the main difference being that whilst My Dying Bride contained an occasional flavour of death metal, Empyrium instead show a very occasional influence from black metal, which usually manifests itself in the vocals, which lurch between the sort of gothic clean intonation My Dying Bride often used at the time and a black metal shriek. The themes of nature, sorrow and romance are somewhat soppier and more lovey-dovey than black metal fans are used to, but otherwise those who like the My Dying Bride sound might enjoy this one; at first I struggled to get to grips with it, and some of the songs don't hang together as well as they should, but in providing a basis for the dark folk explorations of later albums it's pretty decent and I find I enjoy it better if I listen to it with my folk ears on rather than my metal ears.