Winters - Black Clouds in Twin Galaxies
Candlelight Records - CDL 362 - July 17, 2007
By George Grant
England’s
Winters is a newly rising band to the doom scene. Their form of sludge doom n’ roll is clearly a nod to the classic bands like
Black Sabbath. However, on their debut album
Black Clouds in Twin Galaxies the band falls far short from the marks set in this genre.
Very quickly into listening you’ll notice that
Winters plays a very straight forward doom style. There’s no flashy guitar tricks or accented rhythms, and I believe this ultimately hurts the band. These simplistic riffs just come off as dull and uninspiring. Combine this with the lazy Kurt Cobain-ish vocals of Paul Fyfe and you have a combination sure to bore the listener. The band even goes so far on the track
‘Endless Fight’ to allow a noticeable grunge influence to seep into the music. Of course fans of this style of doom may find redeeming qualities in the some of the groove parts, but they are few and far between. Instead of laying back and allowing an idea to flow freely,
Winters has controlled their music to fit with the verse-chorus style vocals throughout.
I will say that
Winters does have a very nice production for the album. The guitars are sitting front and center with the drums right behind in the mix but not forgotten. Overall it gives a great feeling for the doom style employed by
Winters. However, in the end this record is surely one to be forgotten.
Official Winters Website
Official Candlelight Records Website
