Winterfylleth are a UK black metal band and this is their ninth album.
2024’s The Imperious Horizon feels like it came out yesterday, but here we are again anyway, a brand new Winterfylleth record. Whereas its predecessor was icy, The Unyielding Season is fiery.
These well-written songs are very strong. If you had any doubts about the quality of The Unyielding Season after so short a turnaround after the previous album, then banish them now. The Unyielding Season is an exemplary record.
Winterfylleth deal in atmospheric aggression, and The Unyielding Season is a particularly potent example of their art. It’s atmospheric black metal, delivered with hostility and grandeur. The album is ripe with the sort of presence that’s bleak and beautiful, helping to imbue the music with a carefully crafted sense of mood-rich character. Quite simply, this is an extremely enjoyable slice of fury-driven atmospheric black metal. The songs use all of their available strengths very well, providing a listening experience that only seems to get better over time.
Winterfylleth are adept at using their songwriting to immerse the listener in a firestorm of intensity and feeling. The songs rage and burn, while adopting a comprehensive approach to worldbuilding that prevents them from becoming one-dimensional. The material boasts a captivating melodic grace that’s largely relatively subtle as far as melody in black metal can sometimes go, yet is powerfully wrought from molten iron. The keyboards are especially affecting, layering the rest of the music with emotive depth. The charismatic snarled vocals show more personality than most, crowning the songs as well as lurking within them like hidden predators.
Winterfylleth’s new record is formidable. There is a beast within the burning forest; beware the dark within the unbearable light. The Unyielding Season is a force of nature. This record has almost everything a Winterfylleth fan could reasonably want from the band.
Essential listening.
Wonderbox Metal 