Eighth album. Eight. Seventeen, eighteen years. First album for four though; a statistic that is oh so prevalent. The plague years. Some descended into denial and conspiracies during the laying of that strata, some stood face to face with the horrible reality working for others, most of us just stared in complete bewilderment at the reality of the random uncaring chaos of life and the ominous threads that slowly thickened as we approached the grey light at the end. Any of that pertinent to this album? Well as always there are themes to any Winterfylleth album, and as ever they are thoughtful and intelligent. In their past they have been introspective and insular, celebratory and looking in awe upon the land around them. Here?

‘First Light’ is a short, brooding instrumental. It slowly opens wide as though looking out onto a vista, perhaps the spectacular one of the album cover. Strings play a seemingly sombre, almost elegiac tune….  and ‘Like Brimming Fire’ overflows it with that Winterfylleth sound of fast drum work and the keening melody, the savage vocals. It engulfs me, burns into me. It feels like there’s an anger here somehow, though any conclusions I draw should be tempered by the lack of a lyric sheet. It’s a raging sound, beautifully captured and it just feels like a band released from stasis with not just the fire burning bright but with a message to deliver. The melody is just so sharp, cutting deep and I kind of fall in love with the band all over again. The intriguingly titled ‘Dishonour Enthroned’ has one of those melodies that genuinely seems to point a finger, an accusation thrown. It somehow has an air of disappointment to it, betrayal even. Oh maybe the title makes me read too much into it but Winterfylleth are one of the most articulate bands when it comes to delivering a mood. It’s gorgeous and somehow sad and angry all at the same time. As though someone, something, should have done better. And yet it is just so epic too with a sound that expands beautifully, offering a soaring and panoramic view.

No one does it quite like Winterfylleth. Damn.

I hesitated with this review. Do I want to do a track by track listing and comment? I decided no. Because this is indeed one of those albums you need to delve into, to let it speak to you from the titles and the glorious rich arrangements and the soul-born sound. There is little introspection here for once, not much reflection turned inwards. This is a powerful and strident statement of things around them for me. ‘Upon This Shore’, ‘The Imperious Horizon’, ‘The Insurrection’, To The Edge Of Tyranny’ all speak with passion and a more strident feel than I’ve heard from Winterfylleth in a long while. Always emotional but rarely this determined.

However, I cannot go without mention of the epic ten minutes of ‘In Silent Grace’. This…. this is something else. A gently strummed beginning, a rising guitar leading us somewhere that must be shown. It’s pace is slower than most of the music here, darker. I sense an almost grim stare in the harsh edged guitar and then a voice that sends chills down my arms and prickles my neck. The voice is so recognisable. Alan Averill of Primordial, his soul crying out from his throat. The pain and the anger in this voice is soul searing, the music carrying with it the same need to vent. This is someone raging against the flow that the world has taken, a heartfelt, impassioned cry to be heard. It’s utterly, completely devastating as a song. It burns through your defences so fast you have no time to raise more and it howls within your own heart. Not only is it one of the finest performances Mr Averill has delivered, it is for me possibly the finest song Winterfylleth have done. It is just… Imperious. Impassioned. Immovable. It simply refuses to give an inch in the face of the storm.

With ‘The Imperious Horizon’ Winterfylleth with their finest line-up have delivered for me their most impassioned, fiery album yet. There’s something here that rages and is barely contained and yet still soars above the epic landscapes they portray. They retain that unerring touch for melody but this hit harder and cuts deeper. I hear so many bands who clearly want to travel the same path as Winterfylleth but ‘The Imperious Horizon’ proves that eighteen years on they are still the pathfinders that others follow with difficulty and still need to say so much.

Bloody hell I did not expect this.

Fuck. Their best album.

(10/10 Gizmo)

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