Winterburst – The Mind Cave (2012)

Making its way from France, today we have Winterburst and their very impressive debut release “The Mind Cave”. With a very bombastic Symphonic Black Metal sound, the band delivers nearly 70 minutes of high-octane music that resembles the greats of the genre: Dimmu Borgir. Focusing on delivering the catchiest and most effective songs, the band delivers intense riffing and drumming with a high dosage of orchestrations and choir arrangements.

Opening with the highly dramatic “A Mirror’s Game”, this release immediately blows you away with the production quality behind it. The choirs are amazing and the immediate riffing intensity is excellent. The vocals sound a bit like Shagrath making them very fitting for the massive sound that Winterburst has. Changing between shrieks, growls and clean sections, the band’s vocalist Vorender is as versatile as they come. The power of Kyll’s guitars is felt immediately and on tracks like “The Mind Cave”, they pound away relentlessly. We particularly enjoy this track due to its intricate orchestrations as well.

Pummeling through amazing songs like “The Immortals”, “Insanitarium”, “D'Ombres Et D'Infini” and “Circus of Freaks”, the band’s songwriting abilities are greatly showcased with challenging compositions of monumental nature that sound very catchy and effective. The tempo changes and bestial drumming make this release very dynamic and quite refreshing to listen to. There are also countless sections where Terias keyboards are just magical at creating creepy and interesting atmospheres, for example on our favorite “Circus of Freaks”.

Our second favorite track in this release has to be the melancholic “The Stray”. In this track the band focuses on creating a dark atmosphere that is enshrouded by awesome choir sections, intricate drumming, and very well crafting riffs. This song reminded us a bit of Throes of Dawn and their “Dreams of the Black Earth” era. Bordering in a crazy combination of Arcturus and Dimmu Borgir, “Beyond the Wall” is one of those songs that will resonate in your head for days to come.

Just before the closing instrumental version of “Beyond the Wall”, we have the super sick “The Upcoming Chaos”. This song would serve as the perfect backdrop for the end of humanity due to its extremely sick opening choir section and overall apocalyptic feeling. The ‘acoustic’ passage near the middle of this song is just downright chilling and one of the best we have ever heard in a Symphonic Black Metal release.

Love them or hate them because of their similarity to other Symphonic Black Metal band, one thing is for sure: Winterbust has managed to compose and deliver one of the best Symphonic BM albums in the history of the genre. The band’s song writing abilities are just outstanding and they are reflected in each of the 12 tracks presented in “The Mind Cave”. So get off your ass and try to get a copy of this excellent release (and very professionally packaged we might add) before the band runs out of them.

Release: Feburary 15th, 2012

Country: France