Biography
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Years Active
1992 – present (32 years)
Vinterland is a Melodic Black Metal band from Kvicksund, Sweden. They formed in 1992 and two years later they released two demos entitled "It's Here I Belong" and "A Castle So Crystal Clear".
Almost two years later, in 1996, they released their first, and only, full-length album "Welcome My Last Chapter" which received great reviews. But despite the good reviews the band vanished and was thought to be split-up. The album subsequently reached legendary status within the black metal scene and granted them a place in the pantheon of 90s Swedish melodic black metal alongside Dissection, Dawn, Unanimated, Necrophobic, Lord Belial and Sacramentum.
The album was originally entitled "Wings of Sorrow" but the phrase on the cover that read "Welcome My Last Chapter" was interpreted as the actual title by many people, therefore causing the band to just call the album that name.
Vinterland's riffing style was characterised by unrelenting ultra-melodic gales of icy tremolo picking melodies that were very memorable and grand in nature intertwined with some melancholic clean guitar melodies and subtle acoustic twangs. The album also featured an instrumental, very forlorn and depressing piano piece as well as sparse use of keyboards, however, they were not a symphonic black metal band.
The vocals were performed in the typical black metal fashion of the time but with a more emotional twist in the form of a very raspy delivery with an inflexion that carried and conveyed a lot of rage, inner turmoil, sorrow, raw power and aggression; which added considerable weight to each word. There were also some clean vocals scattered throughout the album reminiscent of Dissection.
The lyrics were neither satanic nor anti-christian in nature. They leaned more towards nature, solitude, winter, night, darkness and sorrow. All themes that would later become more common in black metal. The song "Vinterskogen" (Winter Forest) is sung in Swedish.
Years later, however, around 2005, the band got back together and in 2010 they re-released their full-length album, which featured the bonus track "The Freezing Moon", a Mayhem cover.
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