Visions From The Spiral Generator

Vintersorg released his first EP Hedniskhjärtad (Paganhearted) in 1998 on Napalm Records. That same year, he released Till Fjalls (Up In The Mountains). His passion for folk music became obvious with this release, as with the follow up, Ödemarken's Son recorded in 1999. It was his last album as a one man band and the last one totally written in Swedish. Meanwhile, he recorded with Otyg, a full-length debut, Älvefärd in 1998 and a year later their second release entitled Sagovindars Boning. He then decided to team up with his friend, Mattias Marklund, who was playing in Otyg, and released Cosmic Genesis in 2000. Before the release of this new album, Visions From The Spiral Generator, he found some time to record vocals for Borknagar's fifth release, Empyricism, but did not contribute to the writing process. This new album has been recorded in three different studios in three different countries. Vintersorg and Mattias recorded in Sweden, Borknagar's drummer Asgeir Mickelson recorded in Norway and finally Steve Di Giorgio (Death, Sadus, Control Denied) recorded in the US.

Again, the band has come up with some fresh folk inspired metal. Although there are less folk influences on this record than on his previous work, the folkish atmosphere is still present throughout the album. He composes everything on his own and he again displays a vast resource of creativeness. The whole album sounds very natural and his unique combination of black metal and folk music is as lively and unique as ever. Vintersorg still delivers some blackened vocals alongside his epic, very distinctive clean singing style. Either you like it or you hate it. As with Ödemarkens Son and Cosmic Genesis, all the songs on Visions From The Spinal Generator are consistently good. This album is full of wonderful melodies and displays a dreamlike atmosphere of natural tales. It's irritating when some albums have 3-5 good songs while the rest of them sound more like "fillers" instead of proper ones, but he's able to hold the listener's attention from the first song to the last one. His magnificent compositions are beyond comparison as he refuses to stay within the given boundaries of heavy metal.

I will not argue with anyone whether this new album is better or worse than his previous works. I just want to enjoy this disc for what it is, sheer brilliance. This album should definitely earn Vintersorg the respect I think he deserves. Therefore I really encourage people to give him a chance as his albums improve consistently after each listen. Vintersorg might be one of the few geniuses the world of heavy-metal has given birth to along with Devin Townsend and Chuck Schuldiner.