Wintersun The Forest Seasons

Jari Maempaa`s first statement on his facebook page:

WHAT IS "IT"

It's 2017 folks and it's going to be a great year! Time for some big Wintersun news? Yes it is!

When we said that "IT IS DONE", we did not mean TIME II, but we meant a NEW ALBUM for sure! TIME II won´t be the next Wintersun album, because of reasons you already know from past updates and interviews.

So what is IT? IT is a NEW ALBUM and it is 100% done! And no, that's not the name of the album. This album will be something new and different, but equally great or perhaps even better in some ways. Over 53 minutes of solid Wintersun material (with no intro tracks) and with a killer concept!

This album will be THE 3rd FULL LENGHT Wintersun album. We will release the name of it soon and other details like track list etc. We're gonna start putting the pieces of the puzzle together for you guys how it's going to be released and what will happen... It will be a whole new experience to enjoy a Wintersun album! It will all make sense to you very soon!

And this album is not the only thing we've done, not by a long shot! In fact your minds will be blown soon! That is a guarantee. So click the notifications ON in our Wintersun Page, if you don't want to miss out on the new Wintersun album! (Because of Facebook algorithm reach limit). THANKS GUYS!

Second Statement:

New album not an acoustic album! Fully metal and totally Wintersun with new elements!

Third Statement (About Time II):

Little addendum to clear some confusion about TIME II...

TIME II was already recorded the same time as TIME I, but the mixing of TIME II came to a halt in 2014 when I realised that I could not finish the album with my resources. The album is just too big and I will not compromise and release it prematurely like I had to do with TIME I. TIME I and TIME II are huge and just insane projects. They are big budget albums that I should have not probably even started working on at that point in my career. But at that time, I had a vision for those albums and that was the only music I wanted to make. So despite the lack of funding, I wanted to challenge myself and I started working on those albums with what I had...

There were lots of technical problems and other obstacles along the way and those problems could have been solved or avoided with proper resources. Somehow I still managed to pull off at least something close to my vision for TIME I. I had to "use time" to compensate for the lack of funding and overcome the technical issues. You can literally buy money with time and buy time with money. Money = time = money. I wasn´t 100% happy with the result, but the pressure was just too high to release TIME I and get the ball rolling. That won´t happen again. TIME II will not be finished until I have the proper resources for it, but hopefully soon that's about to change! ;)

HERE`S THE GOOD NEWS

Instead I´ve been working on... wait for it.... you know it already... a new album!!! That´s right, not a single or an EP... a full blown album with over 53 minutes of killer material and no separate intro tracks! It will be the Wintersun's 3rd full length album. And like we stated last week it´s 100% done and ready to be released! This album was something a bit "easier to make" than the TIME albums and something that was possible to do with my current resources, but as you might have guessed it turned out to be much bigger production, like it always happens with my work! Apparently I just can´t do anything "easy". :P I guess it´s against my nature! My motto has actually always been "if you can´t do something properly, don´t do it at all" although I´ve had to break that motto and compromise a lot, but no more I say!

I did one song first and was really happy how the song and the production came together perfectly! Then I came up with some other killer ideas for other songs and before I knew it, I had a concept of a full album and I wanted to create it fully and here we are finally! IT IS DONE! ;)

This stuff turned out to be just as good, if not even better in some ways! I'm 100% proud and happy about this album and the production! It's actually the first album in my lifetime that I'm 100% happy with! It is something new and different, but still totally Wintersun!

WINTERSUN'S 3RD FULL LENGTH ALBUM NAME IS...

THE FOREST SEASONS

That's right folks, we'll leave you pondering a bit what this name means. Next week we'll release the album tracklist and everything will become very clear to you! Promise! ;)

So click the notifications ON in our Wintersun Page, if you don't want to miss out on the new Wintersun album!

1. Awaken From The Dark Slumber (Spring) 14:40
Part I The Dark Slumber
Part II The Awakening
2. The Forest That Weeps (Summer) 12:18
3. Eternal Darkness (Autumn) 14:08
Part I Haunting Darkness
Part II The Call of the Dark Dream
Part III Beyond the Infinite Universe
Part IV Death
4. Loneliness (Winter) 12:54

Total running time: 53:20

Jari's words on his facebook page

Yes, you guessed it! This album is our version of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, but it hasn´t got anything to do with Vivaldi musically or with classical music. It is 100% original and solid Wintersun material! It is something new and different. Let´s just say it has a bit more darker tone overall... ;)

Next week you will know how we are releasing our new album so stay tuned for more details!

Wintersun's Official Facebook Page Statement:

THERE WILL BE A WINTERSUN CROWDFUNDING, STARTING March 1st

During last autumn we had long and productive negotiations with our record label Nuclear Blast and we finalized it in November 2016. We came to a good solution, a win-win deal that will benefit everyone - Wintersun, Nuclear Blast and especially the fans! This means that we will do the crowdfunding and it will include our NEW album THE FOREST SEASONS!

The purpose of this crowdfunding is to build the WINTERSUN HEADQUARTERS studio. As some of you may know this has been in the plans for a long time. It is our long time goal and dream. Building the studio is absolutely essential in order to finish TIME II and produce our future albums as fast as possible and with the best production. All the money we raise will go directly to Wintersun 100%, which we will use for building the Wintersun Headquarters.

This will be the biggest crowdfunding you've ever seen in the metal scene! It will be a different kind of crowdfunding than usually. We are not going to offer dozens of different items from guitar picks to used socks for a thousand bucks. We're gonna cut all the crap and only going to offer one very valuable perk! That's right! It will be a massive Wintersun Crowdfunding Package called the FOREST PACKAGE and it will have lots of great Wintersun content including our new album THE FOREST SEASONS. You will be blown away!

The FOREST PACKAGE is huge and otherwise it would be very expensive, but we are going to offer it with a very affordable price in our crowdfunding. So you guys will get great value for your money and enjoy the new album like it should be experienced, with the absolutely BEST quality! The best thing is that all of the content is 100% done, so you don't have to wait for many months. It will be basically a pre-order for our new album.

This way you get the NEW Wintersun album the easiest way, with the best quality and with the best price and you'll help us get to the next level, so we can produce albums for YOU guys faster and with the best production! So this is a WIN-WIN for everyone!

The crowdfunding will take place on INDIEGOGO between March 1st - 31st. It will last only ONE MONTH, so you guys need to be prepared! Get those credit cards and PayPal accounts ready!

Thank you!

- Jari, Jukka, Kai, Teemu

Jari's Statement on Wintersun's Official Facebook Page:

This album is more primitive and organic than I normally like to do, but still modern, melodic, epic, bombastic yet also dark and dare I say even shocking and we love it! It is new and different, ´cause I don´t like doing the same thing over and over, but it's still very much a Wintersun album - although Wintersun can be anything, even techno/trance/pop... There are no limits with the music of Wintersun!

It is a longer album than TIME I running over 53 minutes and for once I´m 100% happy with the sounds and the production. The sound fits PERFECTLY for this album! This album actually sounds great in every sound system / speakers / headphones I've listened to it! If you are a Wintersun fan you won´t be disappointed! It has everything you would expect from a Wintersun album, that we can promise you! And if you're not a fan, you might like it anyway, because it has lot of variety and new dimensions to our sound and style.

'The Forest Seasons' album was something that I could do with my current resources, but it doesn't take anything away how great the album is. Because it is killer! And music isn't measured in money. Album costing hundred bucks or a million bucks can be equally good albums. (But the unfortunate thing is that certain albums can only be done with higher end production and then again some albums would sound like shit with a big budget production and vice versa, some albums would sound like shit with low budget production and some albums would sound killer with low budget production!)

The album has four epic and monumental songs, all very different, but still merging together perfectly like the season changes. Two of the songs, 'Awaken From The Dark Slumber (Spring)' and 'Eternal Darkness (Autumn)' are multipart songs like 'Starchild' and 'Sons of Winter and Stars'.

AWAKEN FROM THE DARK SLUMBER (SPRING)

'Awaken From The Dark Slumber (Spring)' is the starting track. It's a very energetic song illustrating the awakening of nature and it will build up to a big climax! (This song has this album's "killer riff"... forest style!)

THE FOREST THAT WEEPS (SUMMER)

'The Forest That Weeps (Summer)' is the summer song. It's atmospheric, melodic and rockin'! It's also enhanced with big choirs celebrating the end of summer, before the autumn darkness takes over.

ETERNAL DARKNESS (AUTUMN)

'Eternal Darkness (Autumn)' is the darkest Wintersun track to date! It paints a dark mood illustrating the Finnish autumn, when you hardly see any sun at all. But ultimately the song is about death... with a twist that some of the parts are written from death's point of view and how IT sees life... as a mistake in the universe. It's an epic and long four part song describing four phases of dying.

LONELINESS (WINTER)

I'm really proud of all the songs, but especially the last song called 'Loneliness (Winter)' is what I´m really proud of. I really hit it out of the ballpark with this one, even if I do say so myself. It's little like 'Silver Leaves' (on TIME II), but more sorrowful and darker song with really cold winterish vibe where as 'Silver Leaves' is more beautiful, oriental, atmospheric.

I really think that this is my first PERFECT ALBUM I've ever done. It all came together just right!

Jari's post on his facebook page:

The FOREST PACKAGE content will be revealed in full at the beginning of our crowdfunding on March 1st.

Here's some hints:

1. THE FOREST SEASONS *NEW ALBUM*

2. Something missing ;)

3. Something stripped ;)

4. Something enhanced ;)

5. Something improved ;)

6. Something live ;)

7. Something acoustic ;)

I am the mist in the morning

I am the moss in the ground

You are the light that cuts through the stone

I am the worms in the dirt

I am the branches reaching the sky

You are the source, the orchestrator of life

In the dark rain the gray mountains sing

A sad song of winter and the howling wind

Visions of the past in the haunting dreams

Under the dead sky, under the withered trees

The night fall upon the forest that weeps

Father of shadows that forever sleeps

I saw the lakes that shimmer

I heard the clanging of the wild rivers

You are the voice that carries throughout the land

I felt the strenght of my ancestors

As i walked through the land of the dead

You are the fire that burns forever

In the dark rain the gray mountains sing

A sad song of winter and the howling wind

Under the dead sky, under the withered trees

The night fall upon the forest that weeps

Father of shadows that forever sleeps

The release date is estimated for July 2017 due to Nuclear Blast's release schedule and Nuclear Blast will confirm the exact date later.

In the crowfunding, you can preorder a digital version of the album, with the instrumentals, isolated tracks, remastered versions of Time I y Wintersun, a live CD (Tuska Open Air 2013) and an acoustic version of the song Loneliness (Winter). The crowfunding already started and ends on 31st march.

There is a minimun goal that the campaign has to reach, and the album will be released if this goal is met.

A new member was announced: Asim Searah, who will be playing live guitars, although he is considered an official member, not only live.

The 1st May, it is assumed to start the pre-order from the label (in this way, physical copies could be bought).

There is no sinlges or official date release yet confirmed, but when the pre-order starts, should notice some more news about it.