Wintersun have announced their fourth studio album, Time II, arriving August 30th via Nuclear Blast Records.
The LP is the sequel to 2012’s Time I and marks the first new album from the Finnish melodic death metal band since 2017’s The Forest Seasons.
Wintersun didn’t offer up any music from Time II just yet, though they have shown off the artwork — a melancholic winter-scape, apropos of the band’s name — and the six-song tracklist anchored by three 10-plus-minute pieces: “The Way of the Fire,” “Storm,” and the closing number “Silver Leaves.”
“Time II is an epic journey from light to darkness and back to light, exploring the universe and energy, contrasting dark stormy landscapes to calm and beautiful cherry blossom tree gardens with misty, snowy mountains that will leave you breathles,” stated vocalist/guitarist Jari Mäenpää in a press release. “It has songs with furious speed of drums, guitars, and bass and beautiful melodic slower songs with a magical exotic influence. It has massive orchestrations and choirs spiced with ancient world instruments and glimmering synths.”
He adds that the songs have both his “soaring, clean singing” as well as his “aggressive style” of vocal.
“It is a highly detailed and complex album where you will find new things with every listen,” Mäenpää concluded.
Mäenpää has been working on the overarching Time project since 2004, the year of Wintersun’s self-titled debut album. The band’s mastermind called the undertaking “quite a journey,” with the latest chapter’s six tracks telling “individual stories” that are conceptually linked by the specific subjects of each.
You can pre-order Time II on CD and vinyl via Nuclear Blast. Check out the album art and tracklist below.
Time II Artwork:
Time II Tracklist:
01. Fields of Snow
02. The Way of the Fire
03. One With the Shadows
04. Ominous Clouds
05. Storm
06. Silver Leaves