Having previously released the critically acclaimed debut album ‘The Harmonic Passage’ and shared the stage with renowned bands such as Angra, Moonspell, Elvenking, Dark Moor, Dragonland and Pathfinder and many others, Winterage are now ready to unleash their full potential and reach a broader audience with their new, ambitious effort. ‘The Inheritance of Beauty’ is a powerful Symphonic metal opus with strong influences coming from Irish folk, classical and medieval music. Alongside the typical rock instruments, the band is known for the presence in the line-up of a violin played in the classical way and the use of a real full orchestra and many choirs during the recording process of all their released albums..
The theme of the album is the fight of beauty against decadence. Botticelli's Venus, representing authentic art, has turned back to stare at our world: what she sees is decadence, forgetfulness of art's values and the forsaking of Nature. The inheritance of real beauty is hidden in the essence of human beings and artists can give it new life.
Ouverture is what it is, but it’s a long as a regular song and starts with an impressive choir (genre like in movies of Lord of The Rings) and the instruments are as impressive too. This sounds more like the start of a musical or an opera! The real start of this symphonic metal story comes with The Inheritance of Beauty. Once again I think more about what I said about the intro. The sound is really impressive, but I’m just not a fan of opera’s! The music sound strong and positive with lots of pathos and creating visuals with sound. They also mix English with Italian (or Latin). The Wisdom of Us has a folky touch and some cool voices singing in a normal way. The choir and the classic instruments are really impressive. This must be one of the best tracks of this album! Of Heroes and Wonders goes faster and sounds like a classic symphonic metal track (a bit lead by a violin). The Mutineers has a clear Irish influence and reminds me of Lord of the Dance. More drama and pathos comes with the very animated track called Orpheus and Eurydice. Chain of Heaven gets a very much upfronted violin and good voices, whilst the guitar snares are getting hot and the symphonic sound keeps a safe distance. But honestly: it’s not really my kind of song as it sounds a bit too much as a musical or an opera. La Morte di Venere is sung in Italian. The song is led by soprano Vittoria Leoni. The song as a very fragile side. It’s beautiful for this genre (but not my style). Oblivion Day has even an electronic part and changes very fast from soft to hard, piano versus violin, over electronic to symphonic metal, medieval to oriental … It’s hard to believe it can all happen withing the same song. The last song starts like storytelling: The Amazing Toymaker. The song clocks off after out 16:29. This is what I would call the last blow: taking it all out of the closet and using it all! You will recognize some tiny classic parts too. I won’t spoil it for you by writing it down here.
I must say that opera metal is not my thing. I heard some impressing things and you have to know they actually used a real choir and a real symphonic ensemble. All you hear is real, no computerized stuff! It all must have costed a lot of money to get it all properly recorded and arranged! I reviewed it as I had nothing else on my desk. Normally I would just listen to it and leave it. But hey, sometimes I need something new and it works sometimes, just not this time. I’m sure that fans of this genre will applaud it and will be very happy with it!
The album will be out the 15th of January 2020 via Scarlet Records.
