Year: 2021
Label: Signal Rex
Rating: 7 / 10
The WINTERSTORM band originates from Ecuador, and I already anticipate readers' chuckles. In fact, I am also surprised by the pathological craving of residents of Latin American countries, where no one has ever seen winter (the average air temperature in Ecuador in winter is +24 degrees), to create a Nordic blackened metal. I know it's a common thing for them to clone everything they liked without a twinge of conscience and hesitation, but you have to draw the line somewhere, no?
Well, maybe not. WINTERSTORM is part of a community called Pure Raw Underground Black Metal Plague, which includes 13th Temple and another million bands from Chile and Ecuador. You can say anything about them, but these people know how to make real and authentic music. So WINTERSTORM does not give away its origin in any way; it is a ferocious ancient thing with a sound in the style of the demo era of Northern European black metal. The recording was done on a cassette recorder, which is clearly audible by the hiss of the tape between tracks. The merciless blizzard almost makes it impossible to separate the parts of the instruments from one another, especially since the musicians are pounding on them as if in a race. Aesthetically, the album is perfect.
However, a few slow fragments emphasize even more clearly that, in terms of content, "Vinterstormener" is also at the demo level. The songs, to be honest, have nothing outstanding about them, and in a high-quality studio sound they would only cause a yawn. This is a fairly standard and repeatedly heard material in which I did not notice the potential to create even something like ENSLAVED's “Frost”, not to mention more interesting albums.
Anyway, "Vinterstormener" works great as a means of creating a short-term winter environment. As I have already said, it is aesthetically perfect (there are also excellent synth intro and outro!), and the high intensity and duration of 31 minutes won't let you get bored.
English (UK) 
Крыўская