Winters Veil: The Storm Awakens

Winters Veil is the new project from ex-Crimson Altar guitar pair Allan Kesser and Chris Poore. Who between them handle all of the guitar, bass, keyboards, synths and drums on the band's debut offering The Storm Awakens. Added to the duo to double their numbers come vocalists Tamas Csemez and Bushra Hai, who provide an almost constant twin delivered voice to the twelve eclectic songs on show.

Style wise Winters Veil are pleasantly difficult to pigeon hole, with everything from Paradise Lost and Saracen to Pythia and Nightwish being hinted at, and all with a dash of NWOBHM about it. A sharper production and mix would have undoubtedly helped the likes of "Time Of Our Sorrow", which is slow and introspective, or the mid-paced riff of "Cyberelectric Woman" jump out of the speakers far more than they currently do. However there's no denying that the songs are well crafted, benefitting from precise arrangements and atmospheric themes, especially in the use of synth and keyboards, taking the dramatic guitar themes and adding a mix of colour and theatrics to already weighty ideas.

Where problems do arise however is with the vocals, where a mixture of over ambition, lack of a sympathetic ear and, if harsh truth be told, shoddy execution all contribute to singing that genuinely at times fights with the music. Both Tamas, who has a deep baritone, with a clear boisterous attack and Bushra who adds a ranging female voice, are capable performers. However too often their duels become full on fights, where blood is shed, notes are murdered and vocal melodies stretched beyond their limits. It isn't all bad, but whenever the music really picks up in intensity, so it sounds like Tamas and Bushra fail to hear what each other is singing. The real travesty? Well, that the music itself is always better than solid and never less than engaging, meaning that much though the songs and musicianship is always impressive, those efforts sometimes go to waste. These vocal issues don't afflict the more restrained passages and songs quite so much, but the album needs the bombastic approach to balance it out and that is where the problems arise.

Not a disaster, but definitely a missed opportunity, The Storm Awakens possesses enough craft, talent and oomph to be well worth a listen, but for album number two there's no denying that some obvious glitches need to be ironed out.

Track Listing
1. The Storm Awakens
2. Vikingr
3. Silent She Was Standing
4. Time Of Our Sorrow
5. Sonderzuge
6. SPQR
7. Celestial Dreamwalk
8. Ophelia's Drowning
9. Eye Of The Eternal Sunrise
10. Syrens Song
11. Cyberelectric Woman
12. Shroud Of The Winter King

Added: September 21st 2012
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Winters Veil Online
Hits: 2123
Language: english

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