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Wintersun

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For other uses, see Wintersun (disambiguation).
Wintersun
OriginHelsinki, Finland
GenresMelodic death metal, power metal, folk metal
Years active2003–present
LabelsNuclear Blast
MembersJari Mäenpää
Teemu Mäntysaari
Jukka Koskinen
Kai Hahto
Past membersOliver Fokin
Websitewww.wintersun.fi

Wintersun is an extreme metal band from Helsinki, Finland.

Wintersun was originally created by guitarist Jari Mäenpää as a side project to folk metal band Ensiferum, for whom he was lead singer and guitarist. In 2003, Mäenpää began culling together songs that he'd been working on since 1995. These songs followed specific themes described by Mäenpää as majestic, "spacy", and melodic. While Mäenpää planned to perform and record each instrument for the first album himself, he still required a drummer. He sent demos to Kai Hahto, former member of Rotten Sound, who agreed to perform the drums.

After obtaining a record deal, Mäenpää scheduled studio time to record the first album. Ensiferum's tour to support their 2004 release was scheduled at the same time, which forced Mäenpää to request time off from the band. The band instead fired him, and Mäenpää was free to go ahead with the production of his self-titled album, Wintersun.

After the release of Wintersun, the band found permanent members to perform shows and promote the album, although a keyboardist would never be found. In 2006, Wintersun began work on their second album, tentatively titled Time. Recording began in May of that year, but the album would be the recipient of years-long delays for a multitude of reasons, not the least of which was the complexity of each song's mix.

History

2003–2004: Creation and Wintersun

I have a little bit of a mournful, melancholic, majestic or kinda "spacy" way of writing, when it comes to melodies.

— Jari Mäenpää, MetalEater.com[1]

Jari Mäenpää began Wintersun in 2003,[1] "to make songs that make you feel like you are floating in space." Mäenpää chose the name "Wintersun" from a list a friend had produced,[2] later explaining, "Winter reflects the cold and stormy side of the album and also the Finnish melancholy and magic. Sun is related to the 'universe, space and stars'-feel of the album, which is also strongly connected to the lyrics."[3] Although the songs that would appear on Wintersun had collectively been written between 1995 and 2004[4] (see each track's respective composition dates here), Mäenpää kept his songwriting efforts primarily focused on folk metal band Ensiferum, with whom he'd been playing since 1996.

Mäenpää contacted Rotten Sound drummer Kai Hahto, who, upon hearing demos, agreed to work as the session drummer for Wintersun. Mäenpää and Hahto recorded demo versions of "Winter Madness," "Beyond the Dark Sun," and "Death and the Healing",[2] which were sent directly to Nuclear Blast. The label offered a contract for several albums stipulating that a three-song demo must be approved before each new album is recorded.[3]

Even after obtaining a record deal, Mäenpää intended on keeping Wintersun as a side project during his tenure as lead singer and guitarist for Ensiferum.[1] Unfortunately, to support the 2004 release of Ensiferum's Iron, Spinefarm Records scheduled a European tour with dates that conflicted with studio time Mäenpää had booked to record Wintersun. After requesting a break from the band,[3][4] Mäenpää was fired from Ensiferum.[1]

Mäenpää focused his energies on recording Wintersun despite the lack of formal band members. The vocals, guitars, bass, and keyboards on Wintersun were performed solely by Mäenpää, who was already adept at recording multi-instrumental songs, having grown up with 8- and 16-track equipment.[2][1] Three studios were used in the making of Wintersun: drums were recorded at Tico-Tico Studios, Mäenpää's vocals, synth, and guitarwork were recorded at Sundi Coop Studios, and Nino Laurenne mixed the album at Sonic Pump Studios. Mäenpää recorded additional synth and guitar solos on his 16-track recorder.[5]

Wintersun was released on September 13, 2004.[6] Although Mäenpää enjoys writing his music without limiting it to any genre,[4] the myriad styles in Wintersun have been broadly described as power metal,[7][8] folk metal,[8][9] melodic death metal,[8] neo-classical metal,[8] black metal,[7][8][9] and Viking metal.[9]

2004–2006: Band formation and Wintersun promotion

Inspired by Wintersun's musical direction, Kai Hahto left Rotten Sound and joined Wintersun as permanent drummer,[10] and Jukka Koskinen, of Norther, would join Wintersun as bassist. Oliver Fokin, former drummer for Ensiferum and whom Mäenpää credits as inspiring him to start playing guitar,[1] was hired as guitarist. The search for a keyboardist proved to be ineffectual.

The music video for Beyond the Dark Sun was shot over a period of two days, July 3 and 4, 2004. It was produced and directed by Maurice Swinkels.[11]

On October 4, 2004, Wintersun announced the departure of Oliver Fokin as guitarist, and a suitable replacement would not be found until December 27, when Teemu Mäntysaari joined.[12] The search for a keyboardist continued, and Wintersun was forced to use backup tapes for their future performances.[1]

2006 onwards: Time

Recording for the second album, tentatively titled Time,[13] began on May 2, 2006. Wintersun entered Sonic Pump Studios with Thunderstone's Nino Laurenne as sound engineer. Recording of Hahto's drum tracks began on May 3.[14] Rhythm guitars and bass were also recorded during the session.[10] Mäenpää would record synthesizers and sampling, guitar solos, acoustic guitars, vocals, and Mäntysaari's guitarwork at his apartment studio.[14] The album will have seven songs and an intro and outro. The songs' compositions are complex, being composed of 200 to 300 tracks each.[10]

Time would face multiple setbacks, delaying the album's release for years. On October 23, 2006, Wintersun released a statement that, because recording was continually delayed, the dates for the album's mix would be pushed back to May 2007, causing Wintersun's appearance at Ragnarök Festival that same month to be cancelled. A tentative release date for August 2007 was given.[15]

On April 17, 2007, Mäenpää released a statement updating the status on the album, detailing that difficulties with hardware failures caused further delays in the recording process. The mix dates were cancelled, and because Laurenne's schedule at Sonic Pump Studios was full for the remainder of the year, the album's release would be pushed back further. By this time, all guitars, including solos and acoustic, were recorded, and the intro was completed. Mäenpää had begun composing and arranging the synth layers, but stress and frustration had been hindering his creativity.[16]

Hahto issued an update on June 5, 2008, explaining that the album's delay would be indefinite. Difficulties with computer hardware were due to the limited amount of RAM affecting Mäenpää's ability to compose orchestrations in real time. Nuclear Blast purchased Wintersun a new laptop. The band appeared in Metalcamp in July 2008.[13]

While technical difficulties pursued Wintersun into 2009, problems impeding the album's progress would eventually include Mäenpää's actual apartment.[A] The increase in stress caused Mäenpää to have writer's block. Wintersun cancelled all 2009 promotional tours to focus solely on the album's completion.[17]

On November 17, 2010 the Wintersun Official homepage was updated stating that they would again be playing live shows. Three events, Metalfest, Bloodstock and Metalcamp were announced. The reason stated for these shows was a deal with their label, providing money for new computer hardware in return for playing these shows.[18]

On March 16, 2012, Wintersun announced via their official homepage that they will headline the Heidenfest Tour in October 2012. The band also stated that the mixing of their new album, Time, is going well and that a release is planned for late summer of the same year; they also stated that Time will be split in two albums.

On July 18, 2012, Wintersun announced on their official homepage that part I of "Time" will be released on 12 October 2012.

Time I has been delayed until October 19th 2012.

Days before the release of Time, Jari did something amazing, he let people listen to time. This was due to leakage and bad quality uploads of the album on youtube. These were causing distress amongst the listeners who had waited so long only to be presented with a low quality sound version on youtube that did not give the full experience and many layers of the cd.

Band members

Discography

Videography

  • Beyond the Dark Sun (2004) – music video
  • Live at Summer Breeze 2005 (2005) – DVD

Notes

  1. ^ Jari Mäenpää has expounded on several of the problems causing Time's ceaseless delays on Wintersun's official messageboard.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Meeks, Ciaran (29 December 2004). "Jari Mäenpää". MetalEater. Archived from the original on 30 January 2011. Retrieved 30 January 2010.
  2. ^ a b c EC (November 2004). "Interview With Wintersun's Jari Maenpaa". Maximum Metal. Archived from the original on 30 January 2011. Retrieved 27 January 2010.
  3. ^ a b c d Stefanis, John (2004). "Interview: Jari Mäenpää (Wintersun)". Get Ready to Rock!. Archived from the original on 30 January 2011. Retrieved 28 January 2010.
  4. ^ a b c Eldefors, Vincent (September 2004). "E-mail interview with Jari Mäenpää of the Finnish melodic death metal band Wintersun". Tartarean Desire. Archived from the original on 30 January 2011. Retrieved 27 January 2010.
  5. ^ Sandvall, Anders (2 October 2004). "Jari from Wintersun". Metal-Rules.com. Archived from the original on 30 January 2011. Retrieved 30 January 2010. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |work= (help)
  6. ^ "Releases > Wintersun - Jari Mäenpää". WinterMadness.net. Retrieved 12 February 2010. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |work= (help)
  7. ^ a b Rivadavia, Eduardo. "Wintersun Review". Allmusic. Archived from the original on 30 January 2011. Retrieved 27 January 2010.
  8. ^ a b c d e Stagno, Mike (4 February 2007). "Wintersun review". Sputnik Music. Archived from the original on 30 January 2011. Retrieved 27 January 2010.
  9. ^ a b c Byers, Jacobb (26 November 2009). "Quorthon, The Hammer Hearted, Father Of Viking Metal". Ultimate Guitar.com. Archived from the original on 30 January 2011. Retrieved 27 January 2010. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |work= (help)
  10. ^ a b c Bender, Frank (August 2008). "Wintersun: Kai Hahto Interview". Metal from Finland. Archived from the original on 1 February 2011. Retrieved 1 February 2011.
  11. ^ "Official Homesite". WinterMadness.net. 10 September 2004. Retrieved 28 January 2010. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |work= (help)
  12. ^ "Wintersun Announce New Guitarist". Blabbermouth.net. 27 December 2004. Archived from the original on 30 January 2011. Retrieved 30 January 2010. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |work= (help)
  13. ^ a b "Wintersun: New Album Update". Blabbermouth.net. 5 June 2008. Archived from the original on 30 January 2011. Retrieved 30 January 2010. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |work= (help)
  14. ^ a b "Wintersun Begin Recording New Album". Blabbermouth.net. 7 May 2006. Archived from the original on 30 January 2011. Retrieved 30 January 2010. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |work= (help)
  15. ^ "Wintersun To Mix New Album In May". Blabbermouth.net. 23 October 2006. Archived from the original on 30 January 2011. Retrieved 30 January 2010. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |work= (help)
  16. ^ "Wintersun: New Album Delayed". Blabbermouth.net. 17 April 2007. Archived from the original on 30 January 2011. Retrieved 30 January 2010. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |work= (help)
  17. ^ "Wintersun Cancels All Upcoming Show Dates". MetalUnderground.com. 28 February 2009. Archived from the original on 30 January 2011. Retrieved 30 January 2010. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |work= (help)
  18. ^ "Wintersun .: Official Homesite". Wintermadness.net. Retrieved 2011-10-16.
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