Eight years, for 2 intros and 3 songs? Come on Jari, you must be playing some sick joke on your fans, are you serious?Is this your idea of humor sense? You come again to the metal world with only 3 songs, and these turn out to become some of the best metal songs ever recorded? You are a sick, sick person Mr. genius.

After hearing this album, in my mind I'm speechless, and as a Colombian writer Jose Maria Vargas said once: "Only in the regions of fantasy is given to create, create is the mission of the genius", and hell yeah, Jari Mäenpää has created something amazing, something that clearly will not repeat again in quite time.

Musically it is hard for a guy like me to describe, especially cause I'm not a musician, just another fan, but I'll give a try: the most notorious thing here are the orchestrations used in all the songs, easily is a step ahead, not only compared to the last album, but compared to the last decade, is fucking epic in all sense, you feel yourself traveling through time along the minutes passes, the use of atmospheres is simply great, combining all the orchestra managed by computer, the riffs have what always have had in WINTERSUN: Catchiness, talent, fastness and the ability to change from the heaviest to some acoustic guitars that nail your soul, the bass and drums fit just perfectly with each passage of the songs, and about the voices, the mix of harsh vocals and clean choruses is just out of this world, you can see the hard work put in each and every detail in this album, and I'm falling short of words.

Jari, the genius, has managed to please my ears, and the rest of the world's musical tastes, this is just an album that every metalhead must have, and has become an essential masterpiece in my collection, in my iPod and in my life, I declare myself from now on: A Son Of Winter And Stars, born in a Land Of Sorrow And Snow, going through Time!!!

LUKE MCINTOSH (7/10)

Finally after 8 years we have been given another WINTERSUN album. I'm more than certain every other WINTERSUN fan including myself has been waiting for this day for since we first heard the 2004 release "Wintersun". This album is only a little over 40 minutes and unfortunately I don't really think that is enough content especially since this album has been in the making for little under a decade now. The musical direction has changed and is off headed in another direction right now, a more 'electronic/orchestral' approach has been injected into the blood stream of the melodies and battle cries.

Unfortunately there is nothing really too special on this album that captures the listener, although I do recommend the fifth track entitled "Time" which is probably their strongest track in my opinion. I think this album may have been over-hyped thus making it more disappointing that it wasn't as good as many said it was going to be. This still makes for a good album but not as good as many thought it'd be in my very honest opinion. The album "Time I"has many different layers accompanying the bass, vocals, guitars and drums. I personally think at some points the mix is a little too 'thick' but still very listenable. I'd recommend picking this up and adding it to your collection as it is a fairly decent album and one of the better releases for 2012.