WINTERLONG has already released four CDs but I did not have - so far - the chance to get familiar to their music. Longing For Winter acts like a 'best of' compilation plus it includes four unreleased songs. I do not know how many fans of Power/Neoclassical Euro Metal have checked this band, but I think this compilation can act as a good starting point.
Thorbjorn Englund is the man behind WINTERLONG. He created this act so as to deliver the specific kind of Swedish 'virtuoso' Metal, with a full lineup in the first three albums but rather on his own from 2005's Metal/Technology CD onwards. I had the chance to figure out in this album Englund decided to alter the band's sound a little bit, endorsing some 'new' Metal elements (call me Nu?), something that is rather obvious also in this collection.
Englund did have the luck to cooperate with some familiar names during the making of his CDs (all via Lion Music). Lars Eric Mattson produced the Valley Of The Lost debut (2001) while Anders Johansson (HAMMERFALL, Y. MALMSTEEN) and Andreas Lill (VANDEN PLAS) contributed in the making of the The Second Coming follow-up (2002). A proud member, also, of the STAR QUEEN all-star band, Englund showed enough balls into taking WINTERLONG in his own arms after 2005's Winterlong. And he can sing very good, too.
What someone would expect from such a CD? Well, the legacy of Ritchie Blackmore and Yngwie Malmsteen lives on, as regards the guitar themes. Still, putting a 'stop' signal here would be rather out of justice. Why? Because the performance of the rest of the instruments plus the rhythm section volume and the overall production/mix lets the 'Metal' term step in with much of pride. Yes, WINTERLONG plays Metal music emphasising on the 'neoclassic' stuff, but still 'Metal'. The leads are great, Englund has a splendid technique, he does not sound that single-dimensional and - most of all, for me at least - the compositions are real songs and not just a base for self-virtuosity.
I dig e.g. Wild Winter Nights, that bears a RUNNING WILD-meets-SILVER MOUNTAIN module, where Mikael Holm (then singer) has a great deep yet passionate and epic throat. I really dig the songs off the three first albums, in general (some Progrssive Metal 'touch' will you find also, in some tracks). The presence of cuts form the Metal/Technology album is a little bit awkward but not as disappointing as I initially considered. And this, because Englund does find the chance to fill Nu-Metal/samples-related gaps with enough melody and Northern mystique (in The Hunter, for example).
Is Longing For Winter a CD worth purchasing? Yes, it is, considering you're a Scandinavian 'virtuoso' Metal fan with parallel likes of bands like e.g. KAMELOT or RING OF FIRE or DIO. You'll not be disappointed. Even metalheads with not such a 'neoclassical' tendency will find enough of interest in Longing For Winter, to tell you the truth. It's a Metal album, dammit.