Winterlong - Metal/Technology

*=Staff's pick	The Hunter* And So We Remember * Go To Hell My Nevermore Like Ships In The Night Shutting Out The World On A Demon's Night The Touch Of Evil * Cleaning The Machine Badlands

Genre	Heavy Metal	Thorbjörn Englund	Vocals
Tracks	10	Thorbjörn Englund	Guitar
Runningtime	39 Min.	-	Guitar
Label	Lion Music	Thorbjörn Englund	Bass
Release	20 Jan. 2006	Leif Eriksson	Drums
Country	Sweden	Thorbjörn Englund	Keyboards
Similar artists	Judas Priest, Pain

Winterlong hail from the very north of Sweden and the band's leader is without question Thorbjörn Englund. He is an extremely gifted guitar player and he has played since the age of 10. When he was 14 he formed his first band called Endomorph and the peak of their career was to perform as opening-act for John Norum. A few years later he formed a new band with some old friends under the moniker Winterlong. In 2001 they released their first album entitled Valley Of The Lost which simply put could be described as neoclassical power metal.

When the time came for Winterlong's fourth album Thorbjörn felt that it was time for a change. This time he decided to handle all the duties himself including vocals. He just got a little help on the drums on some tracks. The sound is much more modern than before and my personal reflection is that it sounds a bit like Judas Priest did under the Ripper-era so to speak. One of the strong aspects of Metal/Technology is the guitar riffs that are very intense and heavy. The heavy metal sound is through then entire album flavoured with a lot of artificial sounds and beats that leans towards the industrial scene.

I'm not overly impressed by the vocal delivery from Thorbjörn and the production definitely could be better. On a couple of tracks this is a minor problem though and that is when the song writing works very well. And So We Remember has a nice and calm beginning when suddenly heavy guitars and a lot of keyboard work enter the arena which finally leads to great chorus. Go To Hell makes me think of Evergrey and the sole reason for this is that the chorus seems to be a carbon copy from The Masterplan. I also wonder if it's a coincidence or not that the beginning of Badlands is extremely close to Holiday by Scorpions? Finally I also would like to mention Touch Of Evil as one of the albums highlights with the incredible chorus that instantly gets stuck in your mind.

This is by no means a bad album but I find it a bit uneven though. If the standard of the prime cuts would have been consistent through the entire record the number of chalices most certainly would have been more. I'm in favour for the decision to develop the sound of Winterlong and by next album I'm sure that the new course Thorbjörn have set will be more comfortable for him.

Production	Vocals	Compositions
6	6	7

Summary
6,5 chalices of 10 - Hawk