Defenders Of The Faith, le forum Metal

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17.04.2007
News update
The mix has been cancelled and the release of "Time" is delayed even more. I´m sorry to disappoint everyone...again, but the album is not gonna be released this year. And unfortunately Nino has the Sonic Pump Studios booked full for this year, so we might have to think of something else.

Reason for this delay is that, I´ve set the bar really high on this album, but my equipment aren´t even close what I need to work faster. I have to push the gear what I have to the limits to get the best out of them and I have to do a LOT of workarounds which is very time consuming. Then all the thousand technical problems added into the mix isn´t helping. Basically every piece of gear has been broken at one time or another during the making of this album, feels like there´s a curse. Takes ages to solve the problems and send the stuff back and forth making the warranty changes. All this has made me very frustrated and un-inspired. Hasn´t helped with my stress about the deadlines either, slowing me even more. I work the best when I´m happy and lots of times I haven´t been. It´s been the most difficult record to make in my life. The album is very huge, I don´t know if it´s gonna fit even in the 74 minutes of a CD. The track count is very high, about 200 tracks per song. So it´s almost like two albums in one (or three Slayer albums ). But I´m gonna finish this, no matter what.

Now some update of the album progress: All the drums, bass and all guitars (rhythms/melodys/solos and acoustics) has been recorded (probably some add ons will be recorded when the synths and vocals are done). Then I´ve pretty much finished with the intro, that I´ve decided to include on the album. Really atmospheric and huge with some magical Japanese influences. I´ve also started to compose and arrange the synths. I´m trying to avoid the basic (and boring) layering chord stuff and create something really cool to boost the magic of the songs into new dimensions. I haven´t been able to start singing yet, because my preamp and mike "died", but hopefully soon I can. There´s been a demand to know what is going on, so there we have it. Unfortunately the news ain´t always good.

I wish you all a great summer! (But sadly, it´s gonna be a Wintersunless summer).

Jari

heavylaw a écrit :Wintersun vient de donner des nouvelles de TIME l'album tant attendu par tous les fans du groupe.

Jari indique qu'il y aura deux albums TIME I et TIME II. L'album a été divisé en deux disques qui sortiront à deux dates différentes pour plusieurs raisons :

- Les 80 minutes de musique ne tenaient pas sur un seul disque et le groupe ne voulait rien retirer.

-Le groupe voulait que les fans écoutent les nouvelles chansons le plus rapidement possible et ne pas les faire attendre plus longtemps. Le groupe a aussi envie de partir en tournée rapidement.

-Jari indique que la musique est très complexe et qu'il aurait été difficile d'écouter les 80 minutes du cd d'une seule traite. Chaque cd aura donc une durée d'environ 40 minutes.

-L'idée de sortir deux albums en un an et donc d'être plus présent et visible dans les médias semble important pour le groupe.

Time I devrait sortir au début de l'automne et Time II en 2013 sans donner plus de précisions. Le groupe donnera des nouvelles durant l'été avec des vidéos et des teasers. De nouvelles dates de tournées devraient être dévoilées bientôt.

Time I est composé de 5 chansons dont voici les titres :
1. When Time Fades Away
2. Sons of Winter and Stars
I Rain of Stars
II Surrounded by Darkness
III Journey Inside a Dream
IV Sons of Winter and Stars
3. Land of Snow and Sorrow
4. Darkness and Frost
5. Time

Le communiqué en Anglais :

Hello friends!

Time for some album(s) news. Wintersun's "Time" is going to be two albums, titled TIME I & TIME II. We made this decision simply because of few reasons:

- All the 80min of material won´t fit on a regular CD and we didn´t want to cut anything out.

- We want you to be able to hear new material sooner and not wait any longer and we want to go on tour sooner.

- The music is very full and complex, so listening this kind of "hard listening (not easy listening)" material straight for 80 minutes is a bit too much (even for me). Both albums will be approx. nice 40 min epic packages of fireworks.

- We like the idea of releasing two albums within one year, so the band will stay more visible longer, which is important in these "modern times". No more years of silence for us!

We hope you´ll approve our new little "plan" and support us when the "Time" comes!

The tracklisting for TIME I looks like this:

TIME I

1. When Time Fades Away
2. Sons of Winter and Stars
I Rain of Stars
II Surrounded by Darkness
III Journey Inside a Dream
IV Sons of Winter and Stars
3. Land of Snow and Sorrow
4. Darkness and Frost
5. Time

TIME I mix is set to be finished by July, mastered in the beginning of July and released in early fall of 2012! TIME II will be released in 2013. Conception of album artworks, videos, live shows incl. rehearsals will keep us busy during the summer and I´ll also continue mixing TIME II meanwhile. We´ll be hopefully posting some videos and teasers during summer. Also some new live show announcements soon, so stay tuned for those!

We can´t wait for you guys to hear TIME I material and play it to you live! Have a great summer!

Jari & Wintersun boys

Finns Wintersun have released big news recently: Jari Mäenpää will now drop the guitar to focus on vocals when it comes to live performances. So, the band is searching for a new guitarist. Read their update below to find out what is happening exactly. Part of the reason is because the new "material is too complicated" for Jari to sing and play the guitar at the same time.

Update: "Jari drops live guitar, becomes solely a live vocalist:Hi everyone! It is time to start opening the curtains what is happening in the Wintersun camp regarding the future. Negotiations are going well with Nuclear Blast and we hope we can tell you soon more about 'it' and everything else in detail, but first of all we would like to start from a necessary decision concerning Jari's rôle for our future shows."

Here's Jari's statement: "After thinking about it for a long time I have made the decision to drop the live guitar, which means that I will solely become 100% live vocalist. This must be a shock to many, but this is something that I need to do. I want everyone to know that I will not stop playing guitar (ever!) or recording guitar on the Wintersun albums. On the contrary this decision will give me more time to play the guitar and learn new stuff in the 'studio side of things'. I can focus the playing on writing and recording new Wintersun material. Here's my reasons in a nutshell and I'm sure if you read them you will understand why this decision is actually a good thing:

- The main reason is that I've always loved to play the guitar and I've always loved to sing, but I've never truly enjoyed doing them both at the same time. It was just something that I started doing when I was young and kinda was 'branded' by it early on, but actually I enjoy singing and playing the guitar much more separately.
- Some of the future Wintersun material is too complicated for me to sing and play the guitar at the same time. During the past writing processes I've always had the thought in the back of my mind that 'how am I gonna do this live?' or 'I can't make a verse part from this riff, because it's too difficult to play and sing live at the same time.' I don't like that, I want more freedom when I'm writing and performing. Don't get me wrong, there is probably nothing I couldn't play and sing at the same time, if I would put a lot of time to practise the parts. But I have come to the realisation that time is very limited and I already have so much unreleased Wintersun material, that I won't be even able to release it all before I die. So I need to spend the time now wisely to write, record and perform the future Wintersun albums live! Hopefully this decision will at least help to release most of the Wintersun material for you guys! Of course depending also on whether we'll get funding for the albums.
- I'm constantly writing new music, so I need to focus my brains on the new material. If I have to always keep the old material fresh and remember all of it, it 'locks' and limits my creativity. There's a limit on my brains' 'hard drive', I need to create some free space in there.
- I'm already 'wearing too many hats' in Wintersun. I do all the music and lyric writing. I produce, record, mix and master the albums. I've been already playing and singing live for over twenty years, not just doing the rhythm guitar, but doing all the pretty difficult solos too, not to mention the variety and difficulty of the Wintersun vocals. It is essentially a two man job and that has caught up on me! Lately I've been also doing lots of photography and video work for the band too. Although we hope that in the future we can afford to hire other people to do that work, so I can focus on the music. The point is, something has got to give. There's a limit for everyone and I have reached mine.
- As some of you may know, I had a lung operation when I was in my early twenties and I lost 1/4 of my lungs. So touring has been hard for me. Dropping the guitar will make performing easier for me, which means we can do more touring and that's what we want to do.
- I've always hated that my guitar playing and singing both have been a compromise live, because they 'eat each other'. So this will enable me to focus 100% on my singing live.
- The Wintersun vocal parts are pretty challenging already without the guitar... mixing growling, clean, raspy and high screaming vocals, not to mention there's quite a lot of remembering to do with the lyrics as well.
- Normally I like to sing with hand held mics, because I like to move my body quite a lot when I sing. Having the guitar hanging on my body and singing to a mic with a mic stand is quite hard for me, because I can't move and I have to stand stiff in one position. This gives me back&neck problems. For me it's a bad work position. I need to be able to move freely when I sing. So these are the main reasons for this decision, but the biggest reason is using the time more efficiently and getting the Wintersun albums out there for you guys!
This means Teemu will take the solo guitarist rôle. Will he be able to to survive the 'Winter Madness' solo? We shall see! If not, Jukka will play it with the bass! Thanks for listening! I hope you understand my decision, because it is absolutely necessary in order to get the Wintersun albums out there and to play more live shows! I'm sure you agree! Tomorrow we'll announce our search for the 2nd guitar player for Wintersun. A new member will help the band also with the overall work load and bring new energy to the band. The more the merrier! So stay tuned! Especially if you want the job!"

Today is the day you can check out the cover artwork for Wintersun's upcoming new album, The Forest Seasons and it is... a forest! Last week, the Finns announced their crowdfunding campaign that will start on March 1st. With the collected amount, front man Jari Mäenpää says he plans to build his own studio that would finally allow him to record the long-awaited album, Time II.

Jari Mäenpää states: "We're proud to show you guys our new 3rd full length album cover! The album cover was made in collaboration by Gyula Havancsák and Jari Mäenpää. It illustrates The Awakening of a mystical forest where the seasons are merging together. By the way, this preview is just 1280 x 720 resolution. Wait till you see it in 5K! Enjoy guys! This album is sick and minds will be blown! Our Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign will start on March 1st where you can order the new album directly from us with the highest quality! Thank you!"

12 years following Wintersun's Time I, Finnish heavy metal quartet led by Jari Mäenpää announce their new album, Time II. The album will be released on August 30 via Nuclear Blast Records.

Jari Mäenpää comments: "Time II is an epic journey from light to darkness and back to light, exploring the universe and energy, contrasting dark stormy landscapes to calm and beautiful cherry blossom tree gardens with misty, snowy mountains that will leave you breathless. It has songs with furious speed of drums, guitars, and bass and beautiful melodic slower songs with a magical exotic influence. It has massive orchestrations and choirs spiced with ancient world instruments and glimmering synths. It has Jari's soaring, clean singing contrasted with his aggressive style. It is a highly detailed and complex album where you will find new things with every listen."

Pre-order Time II here: https://wintersun.bfan.link/time-ii.ema

Tracklisting:

"Fields Of Snow"
"The Way Of The Fire"
"One With The Shadows"
"Ominous Clouds"
"Storm"
"Silver Leaves"

Finally, our patience will be rewarded when Finnish Wintersun’s Time II album is revealed to the world on August 30 by Nuclear Blast. "It has been quite a journey," admits mastermind Jari Mäenpää who has been working on his expansive Time project since early 2004.

Time II includes six epic tracks with individual stories. Yet the subjects are all linked and this red line gives it a conceptual feeling. Entering Wintersun’s universe, we are brought into the right mood with the eastern-influenced, atmospheric intro "Fields Of Snow". The first real Wintersun track is the metallic brilliance of "The Way Of The Fire", with fire representing the energy of stars as a source of life, which is also connected to time. In "One With The Shadows" we experience the magic of an opulence of vocal harmonies, while orchestral arrangements loom up as ornamental moves. Jari has a remarkable vision on the lyrics, ‘Now I think it is about regret. You are living in the shadows as long as you don’t turn regret into something positive to continue your life. In "Ominous Clouds", clouds are gathering as the interlude journeys towards the next exploring adventure "Storm".

"This is the heaviest and darkest track on the album," explains Jari. "It even has influences from classical music, more precisely from Vivaldi’s ‘Four Seasons’, furious guitars and heavy drums prevail, while the tone remains chaotic." The last track, "Silver Leaves", with an array of harmonious sounds, is partly performed with traditional Chinese instruments like the ‘erhu’ (similar to the violin or fiddle). Ending on a positive note the song tells the story of finding a calm place and state of mind after the storm, being satisfied with your life, and enjoying nature around you, as reflected by the cherry tree garden on the cover. The artwork was created by Cameron Gray, while the booklet was designed by Hungarian artist Gyula Havancsák (lyrics, credits & thanks pages) and Onni Wiljami Kinnunen (band photos pages).

Wintersun is:

Jari Mäenpää - vocals, guitars, computer, programming
Teemu Mäntysaari - guitars
Jukka Koskinen - bass
Kai Hahto - drums