- Country: Finland
- Style: Melodic death metal / Symphonic metal
- Label: Nuclear Blast
- Release date: 21 July 2017
Fans who spent years waiting for the second half of Time got something else entirely. Loosely modelled on Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons and launched through a crowdfunding campaign, The Forest Seasons is built from long pieces, one per season. It’s a big swing, and it only half connects.
“Awaken from the Dark Slumber (Spring)” makes the best case for the concept: bright, sweeping keyboards, Jari Mäenpää’s clean vocals soaring over blast beats, and a main melody that refuses to leave your head. “Eternal Darkness (Autumn)” goes the other way, the heaviest and coldest thing here, harsh vocals up front and riffs with a real black metal chill to them.
The trouble is stamina. “The Forest That Weeps (Summer)” leans on a folky, sing-along hook and repeats it until it wears thin, and “Loneliness (Winter)” is pretty but drifts more than it builds. The mix is so dense in places that the guitars disappear under the orchestration. There’s a great forty-minute album hiding in here. As it stands, it’s impressive, occasionally gorgeous and more than a little exhausting.
Best tracks:
Awaken from the Dark Slumber (Spring)
Eternal Darkness (Autumn)
The Forest That Weeps (Summer)
Author’s rating: 7.2/10
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