Winter - Into Darkness (1990)^{Release ID: 8097}

In my book, 1990 was a sterling year for releases.  Just take a look in the Releases section on the site folks and tell me otherwise amigos!  It was one of the key formative years of discovery for me in metal and one that is close to my heart as a result.  Now, although not on any "top" release list of mine for the year, I am already aware of the existence of Winter and their classic debut album Into Darkness having read much love for it and venturing into numerous listens over the years.  The fact is, not having been that into most of the doom metal world and associated sub-genres, I hadn't really paid it that much attention until having to revisit for The Fallen clan challenge I am undertaking.

Having heard it several times in recent weeks I would describe it as a very functional album.  Backhanded compliment though that may be it is most certainly true to my ears at least.  I don't recall an album that marries the sum of its parts so well in all honesty.  Servants of the Warsmen for example is so simplistic yet effective that it actually makes me smile (not the intention of the record - I know!) with its almost arrogant presentation.  At the same time, the album overall is a (deliberately) monotonous affair that uses repetition extensively.  This does not get boring at any point since the idea is to create an atmosphere and inhabit that dank space for the entre 46 minutes of the album run time.

My "functional" comment therefore is aimed as nothing but praise, certainly when we add the context of the timing of this record (there wasn't much of anything like this out there at the time).  To create such an immersive experience with such a stripped back and down-tuned set of parts is truly interesting to me.  It is almost an effortless record to listen to because it does the job it intends to do so well.  As if opening up the album with an instrumental track is not bold enough a move, we get another one in the middle of the album which kicks off the whole tortuously slow second half of the record.

I would describe Winter's one and only full-length as "nonchalant" in delivery, designed to baffle by the sheer weight of the basic arrangements alone.  But the bafflement is dulled by the slow doping your brain gets track after track as Into Darkness washes over you.  One of the most relaxing listening experiences of my Fallen clan journey so far.

Winter were so far ahead of their time! While doom had been around in various stages ever since Black Sabbath recorded those first, down-tuned chords back in 1970. Bands such as Saint Vitus, Pentagram and Trouble took that sound, dropped most of the rock and roll, and gave it a metallic edge. Others such as Candlemass and Solitude Aeturnus gave it an epic, majestic atmosphere complete with operatic vocals. But it was Winter that took everything doom and made it something so much more sinister and darker. The invent of death metal had progressed the boundaries of morbid curiosity throughout the late 80s, and Winter took this oppressive aggression (and a huge dose of Celtic Frost) and placed it within the framework of doom. The result was by far the most depressive, apocalyptic sounding album the world had ever heard.

Joe Gonclave's drumming is so very minimal yet every beat serves an absolute purpose. While he does step up a gear at times, for the most it's a plodding yet destructive performance. Stephen Flam's guitar sound and John Alman's bass are both filthy and raw, quite often taking a backseat to the vocals and drums in the mix. The riffs are simple yet effective, creating an eerie, desolate atmosphere that runs right through the album. Funeral doom owes so very much to this album and it's no coincidence that Thergothen and Esoteric would release their first albums shortly after its release. The highlights for me are the amazing opening track Oppression Freedom (an instrumental that Esoteric would take a massive influence from), and the hugely crushing Goden. Into Darkness is a fantastic slab of death doom metal and should hold a place in the collection of any fan of the darker, more crushing side of extreme metal.

Looks like I'm going to be that bad guy here, but maybe you can chalk it up to "he just doesn't get it". It's big atmosphere, and it's minimalistic. To me it sounds like a lesser, but prior foray into drone. I'm not a big drone head, and when I do listen to drone it's Sunn O))). This sounds like a Sunn O))) project to me. When I listen to funeral doom I want the pretty keyboards, and the violins, and the melancholy. This breed of Funeral doom is more about just crushing sinister atmosphere like Skepticisim and Thergothon. Those bands never did anything for my soul either. Maybe this is really knocking it out of the park for a select crowd, but suspect it's riding a bit on the concept of being novel for it's time, and "influential". I just hear big empty space. 

New York’s Winter represent one of the Holy Grail bands in the underground metal scene in that they seemed to come out of nowhere with an imposing sound that would prove to be as influential as it was confronting before disappearing in a puff of smoke as suddenly as they appeared, never to be heard of again. I was lucky enough to discover them way back in the early 1990’s when I borrowed a cassette version of their sole full-length “Into Darkness” from a younger mate (who in hindsight had no real business owning such a release) & found it to sound like nothing I’d ever heard before. It was slower & darker than anything Winter's doom & death metal competition had ever dreamt of creating but it also possessed a much more suffocatingly oppressive atmosphere which really appealed to me although I wasn’t quite sure as to why just yet. One thing I was sure of though was that the genre tags that "Into Darkness" was being labelled with didn't seem to me to be entirely accurate as it simply didn’t sound like any of the other early doom/death releases I’d heard up until that point. As a result, I held it up on somewhat of a pedestal for its sheer originality & ambition & could clearly see the influence it had on the early funeral doom scene in particular. I haven’t returned to Winter’s debut album for many years now but have been really looking forward to it as I've long suspected that this might end up being a very high scorer based on my past experiences with it.

“Into Darkness” doesn’t waste any time in building its much-celebrated atmosphere with opening track “Oppression Freedom/Oppression (Reprise)” slowly dragging the listener down deep into Winter’s dungeon of the dreary. It’s a classic opener in all honesty & 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.

The strongest moments on “Into Darkness” are where Winter fully indulge in their slower, doomier side (see “Goden”, “Power & Might” & my personal favourite “Eternal Frost”) & you’ll rarely find as doom-laden a record in that respect. Drummer Joe Goncalves does an outstanding job with his minimal contribution which always maintains a metronomical tightness despite playing in spaces that are rarely touched on as far as tempo goes. Joe seems to know exactly what these tracks require & provides no more & no less that that. Guitarist Stephen Flam (also of fellow New York doom/death outfit Serpentine Path) has achieved a ridiculously heavy guitar tone too but I’d have to suggest that the album would have benefited from his riffs being higher in the mix, despite that oversight contributing to the unique atmosphere that “Into Darkness” pervades. On the occasions when Winter head in a chuggier, mid-tempo direction we see them more openly sharing their crust punk/Celtic Frost roots (see “Servants of the Warsmen” & the start & end of “Destiny” & the title track) & these sections don’t offer the same level of appeal for this doom-obsessed ol’ extreme metalhead.

“Into Darkness” is the epitome of cold, barbarous oppression & perhaps shares this trait as readily with doom/death bands like Australia’s diSEMBOWELMENT or America’s Cianide as it does with its sludge metal contemporaries but that shouldn’t prevent us from labelling the record under its most appropriate genre tag (which is sludge in my opinion). There’s little question that it’s one of the best examples of doom-focused metal music you’re likely to find though which has subsequently forced me to find room in Top 100 Metal Releases of All Time list to cater for it as a result.

Winter is one of the 4 seasons, the most notorious one due to the coldness, darkness, and freezing snow. Having lived in a hot near-equator country for so long, I do wish to experience that season again someday. One band would put their energy from the freezing bleakness into what was the most doom-ridden album back then. This is Winter's debut Into Darkness! The theme of winter may work best with black metal and power metal, but a doom metal band like Winter can convey something more somber about the season, infused with bits of death metal for hallowing magic. There's beautiful contrast between the grounded guitar and the spacey keyboards.

I have a feeling the recording happened when the members were in a college dorm, but I guess you can say that about any lo-fi black metal recording. What makes this doomy album sound so clean yet highly gritty in production is how the instruments sound like switch from multiple to one, as the vocals stand out above them all. The drums sounds the best in the mix, never overwhelming while a prominent massive weight to hold everything together.

Starting the album is the dark gloomy 6-minute intro "Oppression Freedom". If this album was a movie, this would fit well for the beginning scene that shows the aftermath of a battle that happened shortly before the events of the film; the moon shining over a battlefield with nothing in it except burning fire and slain bodies, a bit like the cover art. "Servants of The Warsmen" has a Celtic Frost-inspired sound similar to that Delirium album. Within the gloom, there's keyboard atmosphere to guide us through after-war depression. One of my personal favorite tracks here is "Goden". The death growls that I like are in fantastic contrast with the doomy guitars, bass, and drums.

Then we have the shorter interlude "Power and Might" with a slow yet irresistible drum beat. Then it levels up for another favorite "Destiny", for a groove-like speed. There's still the occasional doom atmosphere to keep things wonderful and interesting.

The best of it all is "Eternal Frost". Words can not describe what a frosty cold doom track it is. The title track is an awesome 9-minute epic, one last heavy listen in the dark forgotten underground. The grim malevolence of this album is still around. The slowness dominates for another perfectly executed track. And it works greatly in the raw fuzz that is a main part of the production.

Winter made only one album in their tenure, and that album, Into Darkness is a better death-doom release than the other two I've reviewed. But don't expect me to return to any other bands from The Fallen like My Dying Bride, at least for now. A stellar underrated release to bring life to a dark depressive sound!

Favorites: "Goden", "Destiny", "Eternal Frost", "Into Darkness"

For me, Winter's one and only full-length passes all the tests of a truly classic album - it seems to reveal something new on every listen and still feels fresh almost thirty years after it's initial release. Although I've always considered it a really good album, I have grown to love it more on virtually every listen, to a point where it is now one of my all-time favourites. It is super-downtuned almost to point of becoming sub-sonic. John Alman's vocals sound like Tom G. Warrior and on the couple of quicker sections, Servants of the Warsmen and the first section of Destiny, there is a real Celtic Frost vibe to the music.
An early contender for Greatest Ever Doom Album, possibly only topped by Warning's amazing Watching From A Distance.