Search - Elvenking :: The Winter Wake

This is FINE, FINE, power/folk metal!

A Kat Person | Bay Area | 08/31/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Wow that is crazy, the last 2 Elvenking albums (Heathenreel and Wyrd) got 5 stars each, but why only 3 for this! Out of fairness, I had to put a 5 star review in here, cause two haters should not bring down this album's whole rating!



And now, on to the review. For those not familiar with Elvenking: this band is NOT like Finntroll. I love Finntroll, but I love a lot of other metal too. If you only like folk metal that has a lot of death and/or black mixed in, you will NOT like this. Don't buy it. However, if you like lighter folk metal (e.g. Korpiklaani, Skyclad, Otyg, later Cruachan, and the like) and *especially* if you also like power metal, then you will LOVE this. If you hate power metal, then don't buy it, because there's a fair amount of power influence in this band. If you don't mind power metal, give it a try. This is not very harsh stuff; but it is beautiful and absolutely excellent musicianship.



For those who are already familiar with their earlier albums Heathenreel and/or Wyrd, if you enjoy those albums, then you will like this one! It continues along the same vein, no significant musical changes to my ears.



Other points: the extra making of video is not that great, but it doesn't matter, the music itself is what you want to get this disc for. Also, whoever wrote the tracklisting made some mistakes. Most notably, track 12 is not "Penny's Rebel" but "Penny Dreadful", which is a quite good cover of the Skyclad song of the same name."

Excellent album - but track listing is wrong!

Dahnlor Wiffingblade | Los Angeles, USA | 07/27/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a great album, excellent folk metal. I really enjoy the prominent use of the fiddle, gives it a lot of character.



Warning for the US version of this: The track listing shows "Penny Dreadful", which is not actually on this version. The packaging lists this song as the "European Bonus Track", but since this isn't the European version, it's not on the CD."

This Album Seems To Be Very Underated!

Metroid Fanatic | 03/26/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Ok, I've been a fan of Elvenking for some time now. I love the Heathenreal album and Wyrd is great too. I would give both of those albums easily just under five stars each. I drop by Amazon after getting Winter's Wake to see what everyone else was saying about it and couldn't believe my eyes. Three stars? That's it? Something must have gone wrong here! First of all, the album is beyond excellent. Elvenking as always are nothing short of brilliant. Some of the earlier reviews on this album gave it a single star, I'm gonna have to cry foul. Anyone who would give this CD just a single star must have some sort of an agenda or something. The album is great, the musicianship is top notch. I couldn't imagine those earlier reviewers being big fans of the genre. I think it is more likely they were let down by their misguided expectations. Let's be honest here, yes this is folk oriented metal, it's heavy at times, light at others, and very power metal influenced. If you're expecting a lot of death flavor you won't find it here. What you will find is a great power metal band, with strong folk elements, and a little shamanic spirituality at times. Elvenking for the most part, has an uplifting sound and alot of toe tapping beats. Bottomline, if your a fan of bands like Blind Guardian, Rhapsody, Angra, Korpiklaani, or Pagans Mind, this band might just be for you. If you liked any of Elvenkings previous album, I don't think you will be let down here either. It's quite rare to find an album that actually deserves one star, just as it is rare to find an album wich is worth five. This album is at least 4.5 stars, I would normally round down, but because of the earlier seemingly biased reviews I felt compelled to give Elvenking a bit of extra credit. Anyway, check it out for yourself and enjoy!"