WINTER — Into Darkness (review)

Album · 1990 · Death-Doom Metal

4/5 · 2017-06-10
aglasshouse

Winter embody every negative aspect of the season they name themselves after: the coldness, the darkness, and the immaculate freezing blanket that covers the ground day and night. Speaking as someone who lives in New York, where this band originates from, the winters here are nothing to scoff about. Though perhaps not as gruelingly whittling as Winter may make it out to be, it ain't fun, in simple terms. So why not make an album about it? I can only presume that Winter's 1990 debut Into Darkness is that album. Maybe.

Doom metal is a genre that fits well with a theme of winter because of it's ability to convey the aforementioned somber themes particularly well. However where the true magic comes from is the fusion of death metal in the mix to make it a truly hallowing release. The muddied, very lo-fi guitar of Stephen Flam (whom I heard of funnily enough with his work with the obscure industrial outfit Thorn in 1995) contrasts beautifully yet unsettlingly with the scanty, spacey keyboards by Tony Pinnisi. This comes mainly from the post-punk, college-like recording quality of Into Darkness, which walks just on the edge of being black metal levels of quality and professional, clean cut work. It really makes the album shift around at times, especially when it comes to either having the different instruments meld into a single, trudging unit or when it comes time for things like the vocals to stick out from the rest. The rollicking drums of Joe Gonclaves are perhaps the best part of the mix, having a modest yet not an overbearing amount of fills at any particular time, yet still having a massive weight to them any time they're prominent.

My personal favorite parts of this album come from the tracks like 'Goden', where bassist John Alman's death-like gut-bellows (which I like so much because they don't sound as silly as one might think) coincide fantastically with the droning guitar and bass and the previously mentioned rolling drumming. This especially works on one of my favorite tracks, 'Destiny', where the pace is kicked up a notch into grooving trot. This as well as interspersed returns to a slow, doomy atmosphere lend this song and the album as a whole to be wonderfully quick-witted and able to keep you on your feet and interested. On the flip-side though many of Into Darkness' slow parts are its weak points- sometimes the hard-to-tell-apart-the-instruments recording style of the album makes the slow parts almost mediocre in a way, at least when vocals aren't there to lend a hand. Some of these slow parts have a minimalist style that broadside harshly with the complex stuff that either precede or succeed them, making them sound pretty misplaced and often misused. In all though these negative areas are few-and-far-between and rarely deter the fun and enjoyable ones.

Winter, in my honest opinion, is a much better example of good death-doom than many of their contemporaries (yes, maybe even My Dying Bride). Definitely a stellar release deserving of much more attention.

more than 2 years ago
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Vim Fuego wrote:

more than 2 years ago

It surprised me a bit. I suppose I didn't really know what I was expecting. Oppression Freedom is on Death...Is Just The Beginning II, and I've rated that highly since I bought that in the early 90s, but it didn't seem like the rest of the album is up to the same standard.

aglasshouse wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Sorry you didn't fancy it. I do think that it's an album that you either like or dislike on first listen and not much'll change your opinion even with listening through it more. Still, really unfortunate you don't like it.

Vim Fuego wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I just tried to listen to it in full for the first time today, and I had to turn it off. I didn't much like the vocals, and it sounded a bit flat overall. I know it's getting pretty old now, but it was a surprise for something which has always been so highly rated.

aglasshouse wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Please do, Jonas. I'm very excited to read it!

UMUR wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I´ve actually been listening to this one on and off for the last couple of years, to prepare a review, but I just haven´t gotten around to write it yet.