Hello, fellow metalheads!
As you can see, I´m new writing here, but I´ve been an active reader of metalreviews for many a year already. I´ve discovered a lot of new music to appreciate here, Lost Horizon, Theocracy, Dark Empire, Suspyre, just to name a few. I listen to metal in quite a wide range. You could say that I´m able to enjoy everything between Deep Purple to Children of Bodom, including the prog side of metal too, for example Suspyre, Opeth, Dream Theater (obviously), Vanden Plas, Seventh Wonder (they are #1 at the moment with their Mercy Falls -cd!!!).
Now it has finally come the time for me to write a few words here, too. Opinions are just opinions, of course, but Farewell to Saints is in no way bad or even mediocre album, if you have even slightly similar taste for music as I do . For me, Winterborn´s first album, was quite enjoyable hard rock album, but it didn´t stand the test of time for me. I bought it, and after listening to it a couple of times, I thought it was quite nice effort and since then it has been gathering dust... I´d rate it somewhere between 67 - 72, but i think i´ll give it a new chance after writing this...
Compared to Cold Reality (CR from now on), Farewell to Saints (FtS) is even colder. First thing that hit me on some songs were the riffs that simply are a lot heavier than on CR. They have moved from hard rock to metal and that´s fine by me. The songs are somewhat harder to get into, but since they all contain great melodies and more thought provoking and meaningfull lyrics, they will grow on you if you let them. To me, this is the thing that makes FtS greatly more interesting than CR. The same thing goes with the proggier and more metal approach to songwriting and performance in general. And as I mentioned before, it truly is colder. It´s subject matters need the gloomier and darker, colder style, in melodies and riffs, and it is delivered. A great example of this is the pair "overture 1939" and "The Winter War".
At the moment I´d rate FtS around 85, but i think it might reach even the nineties after 10+ more listens. Of course there is a little chance for the opposite to happen, but anyway, I think it won´t have the same fate as its predecessor. I just thought I have to give my 2 cents on this one, since this band certainly hasn´t got the attention it deserves... And "the official opinion of the site" on this album is not even close to what it actually IS worth...
(I´m glad if at least someone notices my lonely support and gives this one a fair chance..)
