Wow, amazing! That was my first thought about half through the first spin of Israeli-based WINTERHORDE's "Underwatermoon". And yes, the first few spins were impressive. The complex song structures and very miscellaneous style between and within the songs felt like something it would take time to get into and this would be a record that should grow for each spin. It did for a while but when the songs started to settle it didn't feel as interesting as I first thought.

It's hard not to mention OPETH or CYNIC as similarities to WINTERHORDE as they reach from the hardest and darkest through all styles of metal to very soft and melodic parts, all with a huge touch of melancholy. There's also a lot more elements that can be pointed out in the music, that kind of that modern Death Metal in it, with mixed vocals like SCAR SYMMETRY and a lot of great melodies which moved my mind towards ARCH ENEMY, sometimes it even turn over to melodic BLACK METAL. The true freaks of the last scene mentioned would probably call this life Metal though since the lyrics seem to be a lot more organic than mythical. In the promo sheet it's mentioned that "Underwatermoon" is a concept album, perhaps some more background information could have been in place but it seems to be a quite ordinary Ghost story and in the end the bad guy got to pay for his sins.

There's no doubt that WINTERHORDE strived for perfection and there's absolutely nothing to complain about with the performance. And that could be a part why it looses in interest after a while, everything feels a little too perfect, the music still must have life even if the band strives for perfection. I think I have the biggest problem with the hard and heavy parts because the softer songs are absolutely the more vibrant on "Underwatermoon" Everything is pushed to the max, the blastbeats are extremely fast, the soft parts are very mellow and the riffs in between the extremities "sit as s smack". The thing though, it feels like things are stacked upon another and the record looses its flow from time to time, a little bit too studied instead of everything coming natural.

It's wrong to write anything bad about this record based on what's bothering me with recorded music in general today. All the good things should be pointed out, for example, the vocals on this record are amazing, if Horeph really did everything himself it sure is a world class achievement. The guitar playing is too nothing but remarkable, perfection. There's no doubt there's a lot of skilled musicians in this band but all in all, it got a little too fast to get into the record and it didn't manage to keep my interest up for as long as bands of this fashion normally do. There's not enough substance to it all to be a masterpiece.