EP Review - ".​.​.​And Bear Witness To The Colossus​.​.​." by Winters.

 "…And Bear Witness To The Colossus…" retells the story of the 1969 moon landing in an alternate universe and ends with the demise of all humankind. It has space travel, religion, death, destruction. Thematically, it's everything you could want from an aggressive band aside from nautical."

Winters could be classed as a mix of Hardcore, post-Metal and Sludge and what these 5 Scots have produced with their debut EP is some seriously heavy, noisy and downright pulverising forms of those 3 genres. The subject matter is very interesting indeed and a quote from their Bandcamp states Winters are "Born from ideas and concepts over months and years" with those ideas and concepts being drawn from various musical styles, film, television, history, comics, games and anything else that manages to bleed into their songs. 

The 3 tracks on this brilliant EP are right in your face making it impossible not to sit up and take notice. The barrage of noise is beautifully relentless, reminding me of some of the work from the likes of Black Sheep Wall; the guitars and bass being tuned low, razor edged double kick drums where appropriate, passionately growled HC style vocals all played at a hectic pace with section changes so quick that if your ears could blink you would miss them. I was quite simply enthralled by the experience of hearing this EP and I came away feeling amped up, full of energy and determination, exactly how these 3 songs are played.

As much as I love ultra heavy and super slow doom and sludge, I find it refreshing to come across a band like Winters that stick to a mostly Hardcore sound but add huge weight to the songs they have crafted. If you like fast paced Hardcore with elements of post-Metal with a hint of Sludge then Winters is where it's at.

Grab their EP now from their Bandcamp where it's available as a "name your own price" download. 

FACEBOOK // BANDCAMP

Album Of The Day-Winters-"Black Clouds in Twin Galaxies" (2007)

The Album Of The Day is "Black Clouds in Twin Galaxies" by Winters.



Review:

Some bands choose names that are quite misleading. That's fine if the band wants to be ironic (Barenaked Ladies, for example), but in some cases, bands come up with names based on what they think they sound like or wish they sounded like instead of what they actually sound like. Winters, however, is a band with a very appropriate name; Black Clouds in Twin Galaxies, their first full-length album, really does sound like a dark, cloudy, bleak winter day. This British outfit essentially falls into the doom metal category, and Black Clouds in Twin Galaxies maintains a dark, melancholy, pessimistic outlook. Of course, dark lyrics are to be expected in doom metal, which has been influenced by Black Sabbath more than any other band. Winters' sound owes a lot to Sabbath, but they have many other influences as well — and those influences range from British psychedelic bands of the '60s and '70s (Pink Floyd, Iron Butterfly, late-period Beatles) to Nirvana and the Melvins. Some have described this 41-minute CD (which is hard rocking but consistently melodic and never flat-out brutal) as stoner rock, which is slightly inaccurate. There is, to be sure, a very thin line between doom metal and stoner rock (both are totally obsessed with Sabbath), just as there can be a very thin line between soca and calypso, death metal and black metal, or zydeco and Cajun. Doom metal and stoner rock can easily overlap, but while doom wears its sadness like a badge of honor, stoner rock has more of a tripped-out, hippie-ish "let's party, dude" perspective — and Black Clouds in Twin Galaxies is much too sorrowful to be called party music. It is also a well-crafted and enjoyable outing from these British doom metallers. (Alex Henderson, All Music Guide)

Track Listing:

01. Fried
02. Aftershown
03. Oh No!
04. Endless Fight
05. Life Was So Simple
06. Mark My Word
07. Two Wrongs Make a Right
08. I'm a Destroyer
09. No Will
10. Did Me In
11. Black Clouds in Twin Galaxies

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