| | Full Review | Ratings (300) |
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| 2.0 poor | Thor | February 22nd 17 |
Hey guys, Jari here. I know you've been expecting Time II, since you know, I told you it was done and all, but I need you to give me money so that I can actually do the record. Because I didn't. So here's an album that you didn't ask for instead that I won't put on your streaming platform of choice. You need to give ME the money directly so I can build a studio for ME, because the record advance and resources of Nuclear Blast, one of the biggest metal labels on the planet, simply wasn't enough for my grandiose, world-shattering vision. Just kidding, here's a bunch of leftover Ensiferum riffs and fucking sweeps.
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| 3.0 good | Pon EMERITUS | July 19th 17 |
For how hard you lot are shitting on this album you sure jumped on this leak fast
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| 0.0 | Snide | March 1st 17 |
Wintersun is literally the perfect example of Half-Life 3 syndrome personified in music form, except unlike Gabe, Jari's a complete tool who only cares about his own personal whims.
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| 0.0 | Xenophanes EMERITUS | July 21st 17 |
I'm tired and misread the title as "The Four Seasons" and was going to type out a soundoff about how pretentious and presumptuous that was but I caught my mistake and this is really all the attention I'm going to give this presumably garbage album.
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| 3.5 great | Noam Chomsky | July 21st 17 |
Wintersun? More like wintersuana.------------------------------------------------------------------
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| 2.0 poor | Dizchu | July 19th 17 |
This guitar tone is fucking horrendous. You can barely hear it half the time and the other half of rthe time it sounds like a metal wire impaling your ear and coming out the other. The songwriting ris pretty good but this mix is a fucking disaster. It's one of the few times where the guitar rbeing too loud and the bass being inaudible problem present in most metal mixes is actually rreversed.
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| 0.0 | Stargazer777 | July 12th 17 |
I'm hyped. These haters are just salty losers. HAHAHAA
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| 4.5 superb | Fernando Alves STAFF | August 4th 17 |
Born out of a controversial process, which caused some animosity in some niches, The Forest Seasons is easily Jari's most minimalistic work to date. From relatively simple harmonies, the four songs evolve into more elaborate structures while avoiding excessive complexity. The contrast between songs also deserves to be mentioned, since it's probably the key element in avoiding monotonous moments throughout the album and most likely one of Jari's main concerns during the development process. I don't know if one day this album will have the recognition it deserves, for the time being it gets credit on my part.
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| 2.5 average | Xenorazr | August 1st 17 |
Ensiferum and Children of Bodom had a bastard child, taught it some basic hunting skills, and left it to wander aimlessly in Westeros. Except instead of dragons and White Walkers, we got snarks and grumpkins.
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| 3.0 good | judasgoat | July 24th 17 |
I mean, there are some really nice moments on almost all of these songs. Eternal Darkness is enjoyably intense, and the melodies and variety of Loneliness is quite welcome at the end of the record. But holy shit, absolutely NONE of them needed to be over 10 minutes, let alone threatening to hit the 15 minute mark like a couple of them do. Awaken from the Dark Slumber is a mess of repetition, and easily the album's low point. The Forest That Weeps isn't much better, but it has much more memorable moments. (The chorus is easily the best one on the album, even when they nearly run it into the ground.) So basically, as far as songwriting goes, it's split down the middle in terms of quality.
Production wise, it ain't great. It is absolutely clear that Jari is far more interested in keyboards and orchestrations than guitars. Those are tastefully done, and fill out the mix pretty well. But when they're not there? Yikes. Jari has said he doesn't like mids in metal guitars, and as such, the guitars are an indistinguishable, amorphous blob most of the time. So during the times when the guitars are the focus, the mix is absolutely dreadful.
But in the end, it seems like the main goal of this album was to be a perk so Jari can get his studio, so mission accomplished, I guess. I mean, it's not a *bad* record. There are some highlights that make it good. But it's not anything more than good.
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| 2.0 poor | Ebola | July 19th 17 |
Jari sounds like a pack a day smoker and the guitar tone is fucking garbage. 5/5 AOTY
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| 2.0 poor | DarkNoctus | July 18th 17 |
the only person alive that can take 5 god damn years to half-ass something and phone it in is jari. people actually paid 50 euros for this, and i feel genuinely sorry for them.
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| 0.0 | Have you tried jamming (temporarily redacted) CONTRIBUTOR | April 13th 17 |
Jari writes the book on how to be an arrogant fuckboy by deciding that after fans waited 8 years
for Time 1 he was going to make a part 2 that actually wasn't part 2 at all and he was going to
milk their dicks for money for the not part 2 of Time 1 album. It's totally for his artistic
vision and not his gold plastered Jacuzzi though.
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| 3.0 good | its fkn snowing | November 11th 21 |
lotr length tracks that try too hard to be epic, succeeding somewhat but the epicness is put way far ahead of the music it is supposed to elevate and so you end up with a kind of movie score (in which the visuals are the primary media) made with blastbeats and rawr vox
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| 1.5 very poor | Harlz | February 27th 21 |
Horrible mastering, incredibly dull, hard to listen to start to finish without nearly nodding off. Riffs are indistinct, wafer thin and repeat 5000 times per track.
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| 1.0 awful | Chamora | July 3rd 20 |
The black metal vocals with the usual black metal production feel terrible over the otherwise relatively placid instrumentals. It's a really terrible mixture.
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| 2.5 average | Vanquisher | October 22nd 19 |
The long and bombastic of Moonsorrow without any of the parts that make Moonsorrow so good. Boring
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| 3.0 good | Ebbelboiz | April 27th 19 |
The Forest Seasons is fine. Sadly for a band that set incredibly high quality standards with their first two albums "fine" just isn't good enough. While the songwriting was incredibly innovative, fast paced and diverse in "Wintersun" and still in "Time 1", "the Forest Seasons" just seems repetitive, slow paced and barely has any surprises to offer. Riffs and melodies are repeated too often - hell it sounds like Jari stretched a total of 4 or 5 new musical ideas over a full length album. It's just not enough to keep the incredibly loyal and patient fan community satisfied. Which is why after 15 years I still find myself going back to "Wintersun" and "Time 1" is still in my playlist as well. But I never really felt the need to listen to "the Forest Seasons" again after the first couple listenings right after it came out. Don't get me wrong - it's still an above average piece of music. But if you're looking for something to blow you away... This won't be it.
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| 3.0 good | shimon2010 | February 20th 18 |
there's some great music in the album but parts are not in the standards of wintersun
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| 1.5 very poor | FlurpSensei | August 23rd 17 |
No sense of direction, and the worst mastering you'll hear in a while.
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| 3.0 good | zaruyache | July 26th 17 |
The synths and fancy symphonic crap is too loud in the mix--as everyone else has noted--and really underplays the power of the guitars, making a lot of this sound like cheap symphonic black metal. It's rather aesthetically pleasing music but the mix makes it feel so boring it's easy to forget you're even listening to it, and tracks don't have any impact on you after they've finished--especially since they're basically all SLOOOOOW. The guitars just sort of fuzz in the background as the songs slowly roll along for ten minutes each. This isn't horrible but it's definitely poorly mixed, has lots of pacing problems, and a serious shortage of actual riffs. It seems really obvious how quickly they just slapped these songs together now. :|
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| 5.0 classic | forefather12 | July 24th 17 |
this is amazing album !! all 4 songs are really great !!
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| 2.5 average | Lucy | July 21st 17 |
A few more listens and yeah, this is crap, truly, Jari dropped the ball. rThing is this album could have been great if the songs were half their length and the recording were better mixed. rAs it stands now? Poor production values and overly long songs make this almost unlistenable.rOnly good track is Loneliness and in particular the Acoustic version not even found on the album. rEternal darkness is a close second but come on, it still sounds incoherent and is far too long of a track. rThe first 2 songs sound the same and are easily throwaways which are hardly memorable.
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| 2.0 poor | EternalSchism | July 21st 17 |
As always there is more cheese on this than on Eric Adams loin cloth. "Epic" might be a good term for
this one. Overblown "orchestration", big "viking" chants and cringy choruses of "oooOOOoooOOO"
along with Skyrim worthy lyricism. A rare good idea stretched out as far as Kate Englands cunt on
blacked. Jari Mia-ri was right when he said the guitar tone sucked, no doubt it will be excused as "black
metal" despite the lack of any true bite or strength to the limp dick riffs.
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| 2.0 poor | Brendan Schroer STAFF | July 21st 17 |
"Wintersun is literally the perfect example of Half-Life 3 syndrome personified in music form"
Now that the album is out, can't we just call both this and Time I the musical equivalent of Duke Nukem Forever, and say Wintersun's debut album is the only good one Jari's done for the project?
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| 2.5 average | Gibleson | July 21st 17 |
Though Awaken from the Dark Slumber is a bit rocky, the last three tracks are fantastic, especially the behemoth that is Eternal Darkness. Better than Time I, but not as great as the debut.
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| 0.0 | Wolfhorde | July 19th 17 |
If this was a normal metal album that was r(1) not consisting of a bunch of fucking throaway tracks no one fucking needs r(2) wasn't such a FUCKING DISASTER production wise, where the fuck did all that money and grandiose talk about production go? I can listen to self-released albums with better production r(3) didn't come from the biggest narcissist shithead in the metal scenerit would probably even be a good album.
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| 2.5 average | Jeejee | September 19th 24 |
| 3.0 good | Zakusz | September 10th 24 |
| 4.5 superb | KManoc1 | September 5th 24 |
| 2.0 poor | Elynna | September 1st 24 |
| 5.0 classic | Ztrain | June 19th 24 |
| 3.5 great | JoneHK | March 4th 24 |
| 2.0 poor | Davey | November 12th 23 |
| 2.5 average | P1pari | May 27th 23 |
| 3.5 great | kodama | December 16th 22 |
| 2.5 average | Spag | July 28th 22 |
| 1.5 very poor | GeorgeX | April 14th 22 |
| 3.5 great | Tundra | February 6th 22 |
| 2.0 poor | Jerrad | January 21st 22 |
| 2.5 average | KTPA2 | November 19th 21 |
| 4.5 superb | tekth | November 8th 21 |
| 1.5 very poor | Porklips | September 26th 20 |
| 2.5 average | Prole | May 12th 20 |
| 3.5 great | ulcer | April 20th 20 |
| 2.5 average | ICDD | February 23rd 20 |
| 2.5 average | thawey | January 12th 20 |
| 2.5 average | mEyck07 | December 13th 19 |
| 4.5 superb | hussam | April 30th 19 |
| 1.5 very poor | Korgull | February 26th 19 |
| 3.5 great | Flave | February 22nd 19 |
| 3.5 great | latpac | December 21st 18 |
| 4.0 excellent | Behexen | November 16th 18 |
| 4.0 excellent | ariich | October 24th 18 |
| 4.0 excellent | IceMole | September 16th 18 |
| 3.5 great | hsb | May 28th 18 |
| 3.0 good | Hybza | May 12th 18 |
| 3.5 great | bSmith | March 26th 18 |
| 4.0 excellent | Hawke502 | February 26th 18 |
| 1.5 very poor | Fear | December 30th 17 |
| 3.0 good | mursu | December 19th 17 |
| 3.0 good | RAGG | December 2nd 17 |
| 2.0 poor | ckssr1 | November 22nd 17 |
| 2.0 poor | valek | November 18th 17 |
| 3.5 great | nashet | November 11th 17 |
| 3.0 good | boab92 | November 6th 17 |
| 3.0 good | Xerian | October 14th 17 |
| 2.5 average | Elevon | October 9th 17 |
| 2.5 average | Shogun | September 28th 17 |
| 2.0 poor | Jeclub | September 27th 17 |
| 2.5 average | gilly | September 13th 17 |
| 3.5 great | jopower | September 9th 17 |
| 3.0 good | Stonik | September 3rd 17 |
| 3.0 good | KyleW | August 27th 17 |
| 4.0 excellent | dragoth | August 20th 17 |
| 3.0 good | tellah | August 17th 17 |
| 2.5 average | heck | August 15th 17 |
| 3.0 good | Tyrael | August 6th 17 |
| 2.5 average | Scuro EMERITUS | August 2nd 17 |
| 3.5 great | arf | August 1st 17 |
| 3.5 great | Spado | July 30th 17 |
| 1.5 very poor | mifzal | July 22nd 17 |
| 4.0 excellent | Poet | July 21st 17 |
| 2.0 poor | trilo | July 21st 17 |
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