Vintersorg

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Vintersorg
General information
Genre (s) Folk Metal , Progressive Metal
founding 1994
Website http://www.myspace.com/vintersorganic
Founding members
Vintersorg (Andreas Hedlund)
Current occupation
Vocals, guitar, keyboard
 Vintersorg (Andreas Hedlund)
guitar
 Mattias Marklund
bass
 Steve DiGiorgio (session musician)
Drums
 Asgeir Mickelson (session musician)

Vintersorg is a Swedish folk and progressive metal band that was founded in 1994 under the name Vargatron ('Wolf Throne'). After several line-up changes, Andreas Hedlund was finally the sole member of Vargatron in 1996 and decided to rename the project Vintersorg. Vintersorg's music combines metal with acoustic guitars and clear vocals, and many elements from folklore can be found.

The name Vintersorg comes from a character from the book Isfolket ('The Ice People') by Margit Sandemo , in which Vintersorg is the son of a pagan chief. Roughly translated, it would mean 'winter sorrow'.

Style and concept

The first albums are mainly written in Swedish and are largely about mother nature, mythology , sagas and legends, and he often uses the voice of Cia Hedmark, who was the singer and violinist with Otyg at the time .

From the album Cosmic Genesis onwards , the lyrics were mostly in English and now dealt with the cosmos and space instead of forests and mountains. The use of female vocals, as on older albums, does not exist at all from Cosmic Genesis . In addition, Vintersorg's music is given a much more progressive touch, which has been a key element since The Focusing Blur at the latest . Little can be heard of the earlier Folk Metal and Black Metal influences, the album can be classified more as Progressive Metal . In addition, the former solo project from Cosmic Genesis grew: After Andreas Hedlund dissolved his former folk metal group Otyg, the former guitarist of Otyg, Mattias Marklund, also joined Vintersorg. Steve DiGeorgio (bass) and Asgeir Mickelson (drummer) have been active as session musicians at Vintersorg since the album Visions from the Spiral Generator .

The album Solens rötter , which was released in 2007 , partially dispenses with the progressive, futuristic elements that were mainly introduced by the keyboard on the previous two albums, and is more dedicated to the earlier style, although the band does not go back completely and for example the Guitar riffs stay progressive. Musically it is a fusion of Nordic folklore and epic black metal influences. The texts are again written in Swedish and, in terms of content, are a mixture of the old Vintersorg theme of nature (e.g. Döpt i en jökelsjö ↔ 'Baptized in a glacial lake', Spirar och gror ↔ 'Sprouts and germs') and the newer ones Vintersorg themes from the world of thought and science (e.g. cosmosaic ↔ ' cosmo -mosaic', Strålar ↔ 'rays').

Side projects

Andreas Hedlund is active in other bands besides Vintersorg. On the one hand, he has been a permanent singer with Borknagar since 2001 - he left the band in February 2019 for personal reasons - on the other hand he lends his voice to the progressive metal project Fission by drummer Benny Hägglund . At the end of 2005 he founded the "musical hybrid" Cronian and started another solo project, Waterclime , which is musically based on old (progressive) rock classics. In 2000 he also took part in the only publication of Havayoth to date . Together with his namesake and former Vintersorg live guitarist Andreas Stenlund, he founded the death metal project Harmdaud in 2017 , which has so far released two albums.

Discography

Studio albums

  • 1998: Till fjälls (CD / LP / MC ; Napalm Records ) Released in 14 versions until 2014.
  • 1999: Ödemarkens son (CD / LP / MC; Napalm Records) Released in a total of 11 versions, LP release 2017.
  • 2000: Cosmic Genesis (CD / MC; Napalm Records) Published in a total of 8 versions.
  • 2002: Visions from the Spiral Generator (CD / MC; Napalm Records)
  • 2004: The Focusing Blur (CD; Napalm Records)
  • 2007: Solens rötter (CD; Napalm Records)
  • 2011: Jordpuls (CD; Napalm Records)
  • 2012: Orkan (CD; Napalm Records)
  • 2014: Naturbål (CD / MP3; Napalm Records)
  • 2017: Till fjälls Del II (CD / 2xCD / LP + 12 "/ MP3; Napalm Records)

EPs

  • 1998: Hedniskhjärtad (CD; Napalm Records)

swell

Vintersorg at Discogs (English)

  1. ↑ George Grant: Vintersorg - Solens Rötter .