The Hall of Judgement: Winter - Into Darkness

Daniel has requested that this release be submitted into the Hall of Judgement. If you agree with the below change request, vote YES. If you don't, vote NO.

Request: Winter's "Into Darkness" album should have the Sludge Metal genre added while staying in The Fallen.

This change will add the Sludge Metal genre to the release.

Member comment: "Winter's sole full-length 'Into Darkness' is generally tagged as Death Doom Metal but this week's revisit has seen me strongly questioning that position. Opening track “Oppression Freedom/Oppression (Reprise)” is probably the only genuine doom/death track on the album if you wanna get technical about it. The only other track that offers much in the way of that death metal feel (think Autopsy) is the closing title track but even then it’s kinda 50/50. The wonderful three-minute 'Power & Might' that sits right in the middle of the tracklisting represents one of the earliest examples of the funeral doom metal sound & is possibly even one of the best too but the rest of the album is made up of an abrasive brand of doom metal that, when combined with bassist John Alman’s growled vocals, seems to sit far more comfortably under a sludge metal tag than anything death metal related. There’s really not much death metal instrumentation included on 'Into Darkness' in all honesty & the links to Celtic Frost (see 'Servant of the Warsmen' in particular), crust punk gods Amebix & sludge metal acts like Crowbar seem like far more appropriate points of reference to me. Are the vocals death growls? I’d suggest they play in the space between sludge metal & death metal but when combined with this super down-tuned & filthy guitar tone they seem to possess a crusty hardcore edge more regularly than they do that grisly Chris Reifert-ish death metal tone. That’s right ladies & gentlemen. I’m suggesting that 'Into Darkness' isn’t actually a doom/death record. It’s predominantly a sludge metal one for mine so I'd like to see a Sludge Metal tag added on top of it's Doom Metal one. If successful then I may elect to have the Doom Metal tage removed at a later date too."

NOTE: Only members of The Fallen can vote on this judgement. Once 15 votes of Yes or No have been entered, the Hall will make its judgement.