| Winds 'Reflections Of The I' The End Records, 2002 Tyrant: Winds is a Norwegian band featuring Lars Eric Si ( ex Khold, Sensa Enima ), Carl August Tidemann ( Arcturus ), Hellhammer ( Mayhem, Covenant ), and Andy Winter. Reflections Of The I is the bands second release and first album proper featureing the talents of members of Oslo's Philharmonic Orchestra. Musically Winds sit somewhere in the realms of both progressive metal, darkmetal, and classical music, with riffs at times similar to both Symphony X and Covenant, backed by Andy Winter's light sprinklings of synth and some impressive emotive string sections. The music is gentle and reflective, and generally sits a slow comfortable tempo with the exception of some faster lead sections that flow smoothly within the songs. The Lars' vocals are clean and powerful and sit in a low powermetal range full of emotion and conviction whilst some guest vocals are contributed in the form of a deeper narrative voice which adds another dimension to a few of the songs. The drumming talents of Hellhammer need no introduction and whilst he is quite restrained on this disc, he nevertheless produces a tight and flawless performance. Winds' lyrics are fairly introverted and self exploratory, perfectly fitting the mood presented by the music and the excellent cover art. Overall Reflections Of The I is high calibre emotional music that fans of either progressive music or powermetal should explore. Winds impressively fills a void in expressive emotive music that needs to be further explored. Favourite Tracks - Existence ; Of Divine Nature ; Passion's Quest Mark - 9/10 Winds 'The Imaginary Direction Of Time' Blackend, 2004 Tyrant: The Imaginary Direction Of Time continues in the vein of Winds debut with Carl's smooth rocky metal riffs and slick melodic leads interspersed with Andy's gentle twinkling pianos, Hellhammer's mild percussion and Lars' silky vocals. Philharmonics are once again used to augment the flow and progressive atmosphere of the music and lyrics. Strangely the lyrics on The Imaginary Direction Of Time seem both familiar and foreign to those presented on Relfections Of The I. Where Reflections... seemed to be a very introverted affair, Imaginary... seems to take the listener on a continual seeking quest and yearning for knowledge. Even the artwork also gives of a different vibe to the debuts'. Perhaps I'm reading to much into it but the atmopheres of both albums seem very different even though the tools to achieve them are the same. The only major changes are some occasional harmonised vocals on a couple of tracks and the continual flow of the music on Imaginary... which switches songs so smoothly when played through as an album you'll find hard to pick when one song ends and a new one begins. Overall 'TIDOT' is a more scientific approach to the raw beauty of 'ROTI' and as a result loses some of the emotion its superior predecessor displayed. Good but a little dissapointing. Favourite Tracks - A Moment For Reflection ; Theory Of Relativity ; The Final End Mark - 7.5/10 |
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