WINTERSUN: "Fields of Snow" and "The Way of the Fire" - Thoughts and Reaction

[@ValtteL]

Good lad! Really love Time II. I'm listening to Time II and Yesterwynde all the time. Good times 😄

[@TheWolffAndTheMelody]

Hell yea! I'm excited for the rest of the album.

[@paul.d.8535]

Me too! 😊

[@AnssiKoskinenFI]

Same

[@jona7940]

Vocals are indeed quite quiet on the album, but they dynamically change volume depending on the part of the song, so I do believe it is intentional. An example would be the chorus, where the "FIRE THE OLDEST ONE" is kind of quiet, but the "BURNS WILD INSIDE MY FROZEN HEART" is very loud in comparison

[@TheWolffAndTheMelody]

We may agree to disagree on it being intentional. I'm still excited to hear this album!

[@Spectre67Productions]

I care about you as well. Do what you love. You are blessed to be where you are.

[@TheWolffAndTheMelody]

Much love my friend!

[@leilafouad16]

YES WINTERSUN 🤘🤘🤘 let’s do it 🥰🥰

[@TheWolffAndTheMelody]

YOU KNOW IT!!!!

[@crazyjoedavola7493]

Yes, get in there my son!

[@TheWolffAndTheMelody]

HERE WE GO BABY!

[@jona7940]

Lets go!

[@gabrielkain1]

This had a really cool sound to it. There was an obvious East Asian influence to this, but I also heard a bit of a Renaissance feel as well. The drums were really impressive in the second track in spite of how repetitive they were. Tommy, you have been out here killing it, building the channel and doing the interviews. Just keep doing what you are doing and the sky is the limit my brother.

[@TheWolffAndTheMelody]

Glad you enjoyed this! I'm excited for the whole album.

[@chilliwilliams2525]

We're friends for a reason, don't change, keep being you mate 😊 I'm always here.

[@TheWolffAndTheMelody]

Thanks man dude❤

[@jannepeuraniemi5053]

I have feeling that One With The Shadows and Silver Leaves will be you favorites from this album, as they are mine. All the songs are amazing, but those two just have a different feel to them. Can't wait to see your reaction to the rest of the album! OH!! I would also recommend you listen to Ominous Clouds and Storm at the same time, as Ominous Clouds works an intro to Storm. Cheers!

[@TheWolffAndTheMelody]

I really can't wait to dive in and hear it all!!!

[@paul.d.8535]

Yes Tommy will blow his mind when he gets to those two songs, despite the misgivings with the mixing which a lot of us are experiencing. 😊

[@ZerilathImmortal]

My Vynil came in this week. so good!

[@TheWolffAndTheMelody]

Rock on!

[@brothernemiel6465]

Compared to the WAV files from the Time package I think the youtube compression hits hard with all the layers so I guess some of the vocal mix is falling flat due to that. Give it a spin on a music streaming platform or CD. It will still not have the full sound but a much better dynamic range

[@TheWolffAndTheMelody]

Ive been told to hear it on cd.

[@lrtt99]

Hi. The wav files from the time package sounds way much better than the youtube version. Trust me, there are some details behind the YT compression

[@paul.d.8535]

Hi Tommy, if Loliness is a standout track off the forest seasons album then you will absolutely love One with the shadows and the outstanding Silverleaves off Time ll. Can't wait for your reaction.

[@TheWolffAndTheMelody]

@@paul.d.8535 Can't wait for them!

[@Arphaxad17]

If you bought the Time II package, the Dynamic 2dB mix sounds better to me, and the vocals stand out a bit more.

[@TheWolffAndTheMelody]

ohhh I see

[@Pattagorn123]

In the Time Package there are different mixes of the album. The "Wintersun - TIME II Dynamic 2dB" Version has a much better mix in my opinion. I couldn't really get into the album with the original mix, but after hearing the dnyamic version i really started liking the album more and more with each listen.

[@Perrrkeles]

Mp3 sound is way clearer. Muddy somehow for my ears. Still fuckin awesome album. Greetings from Finland: home of metal😁😁🤘🤘💪💪🇫🇮🇫🇮🇫🇮

[@DanielJenssen]

The first song does not feature vocals, it's a purely instrumental song. I think those lyrics are meant to help convey the mood of the song. The album has a "wall of sound" mix by intent, I suppose that's more of a personal preference as I love how strong and powerful the instruments sound. In any case, really happy to see you finally doing reaction to this album and I can't wait for the rest of the songs. Although at the time of writing this comment, they have not released lyric videos for the two final tracks on the album. Hopefull they will be out soon.

[@TheWolffAndTheMelody]

Yea dude, non the less I'm very excited for this album and to hear it all.

[@abioqaas]

I don't have an issue with the mix. I think some of the singing parts are meant to be lower and pushed back, like aural tapestry and the lead vocal parts are loud and clear. A good mix should sound good on all equipment, so I don't like it when people make that excuse that the fault is with the equipment used. Mixing this kind of music is very challenging and perhaps Jari would benefit if he would hire a pro to at least give a "second opinion". Even though I don't have an issue with the mix, there are so many discussions around that topic that at the least the mix is divisive. My experiences have been with Sennheiser and Audeze headphones and Genelec and Amphion speakers. The mix is also slightly different on the Time Package -2dB dynamic version, which isn't mixed to be as loud as the regular mix. It's one of the extra mixes that Jari offered on the preorder package. I've been listening to at least one track per day from Time II since it's release, it's definitely my album of the year, probably of the decade.

[@TheWolffAndTheMelody]

All that matter is that you love it. I can't wait to hear the rest.

[@petrihiltunen4478]

That sounded really weird. On CD and MP3/WAV that sounds way different 😮 Cool reaction though.

[@TheWolffAndTheMelody]

Ya, im gonna listen to the album on cd

[@Patralgan]

It's not unusual that in Wintersun songs some vocal parts are barely audible (and sometimes even almost completely buried). As with many instruments, especially in the Time I and Time II -albums, some of them are inaudible by themselves but they contribute to the richness of the sound. I think Jari treats vocals as one instrument among the others, at least sometimes. Also now that I compare the lossless master file of the song and the compressed KZbin version, somehow the vocals are more unbalanced in the compressed version. That's unfortunate but I guess since the song has shit-ton of layers, KZbin just can't handle it well

[@TheWolffAndTheMelody]

That makes sense with the layering.

[@freekeemonkee]

The LP sounds better than KZbin and Spotify as well.

[@terokaarrela3120]

Personally I don’t find issue with vocals in the mix but what’s up with the sound of drums. So compressed it sounds like they put Kai play with toy drum set.

[@sagebooker]

I hear some japanese esthetic in the first one

[@claire6650]

Listening to this video, now i can clearly hear why i heard so many negative review about the drum The Dynamic FLAC from the package sounds SO much better

[@ivanbessonov5405]

When I listened to this particular video, vocal really sounded weird and poorly mixed. But it sounds good in my headphones when I listen to it from other sources, like Spotify or my iPod. It also sounds good on speakers, but the feeling would be very different. I've no idea how that works, but this particular album is very sensitive to compression and equipment I guess, it's super strange

[@freekeemonkee]

1st album just got repressed. pre-orders now.

[@toiddiot1629]

Song writing and musicianship are top notch, but I can't get over the mix. Drums sound absolutely horrific. I'm sure Jari had a vision and it all is supposed to sound like this for some artistic reason. Time 1 had the same issues but smaller scale. It's a disappointment.

[@TheWolffAndTheMelody]

I'm gonna do the whole album, but yea this vocal mix was rough.