Polish multi-instrumentalist Adam Jurczynski is releasing his fourth album with Cold Winter after releasing Beyond The Horizon (2019, see review), My Love And My Passion (2021) and Breath (2023, see review) earlier. Unfortunately, I have never heard any music by him so I only had the cover to get a premonition. The album starts with a whining guitar and a spoken text. He often uses his voice as a kind of narrator and sometimes is a bit close to grunting but that is not so strange when you consider that we are dealing with old Viking sagas. Look at the cover and you'll understand what I'm talking about. He plays a lot of the instruments himself except for the drums, which are played by Bobi, and he also "sings". It is mainly metal what we hear and the heavy guitar parts are very dominant. However, there are some quiet passages that provide variety and that is a relief and even necessary because it often is very intense. The seven songs that form the basis of the album are generally of a relatively short duration except for the second song. Cold Winter/ Aurora Borealis which lasts more than eleven minutes and contains female vocals provided by Matgorzaia Szkoda-Hreczuch, what's in a name right? The track starts with some dreamy sounds but as soon as the guitar unleashes its first riffs we are in metal territory. The dreamy parts come back in the middle but it is mayhem soon again. Tears Of The East is quite a challenge with its six minutes if you don't really like pure metal and the grunting is certainly something you have to love. Heavy stuff, lots of raging guitar salvos and bass violence. Bright Sunbeam is a short intermezzo with some nice flowing guitar work, so he can do that too. After this, however, the pounding goes on in full force again because the very short instrumental New Form Of Life continues at full speed. It is clear that Jurczynski is a capable guitarist, but he does not leave much room to breathe and focuses mainly on heavy riffing. The term prog metal is actually not suitable to describe the music because it lacks the necessary finesse. The narrating, growling voice is also something you can start to dislike after a while and Lost Paradise contains a lot of these grunted lyrics. The album is relatively short because the forty minutes are not reached and I have to admit that the instrumental closing track I'm Going Home is quite nice to listen to. Well, this is no music for the faint-hearted and even the prog metal fans will probably have trouble with the heavy nature of the music on Cold Winter. There is little room for melody and subtleties and the way the lyrics are delivered is also quite taste-specific. However, if that's your thing, you should definitely have a listen. For those who, like me, are firmly overwhelmed by all this musical violence, this album will not appeal. **+ Erik Fraanje (edited by Dave Smith) Where to buy? |
