Wintersun - Time II (LP) - Picture Disc Vinyl

Wintersun fans have learned to live with waiting. Time I arrived in 2012 like a blizzard of choirs and contrapuntal guitar lines, then the sequel slipped into legend, with Jari Mäenpää posting studio updates about colossal orchestrations, CPU bottlenecks, and the kind of sound design that fries lesser workstations. Time II finally landed in 2024 on Nuclear Blast, and it sounds like the album he kept describing all those years. Not bigger for the sake of it, but deeper. The arrangements breathe, even when the mix is stacked to the rafters with strings, brass, folk instruments and synths that shimmer like aurora over Helsinki in January.

The first thing that jumps out is how confidently the band straddles that border where melodic death metal brushes against power metal. Jari’s clean hooks sit right alongside the harsh vocals in a way that feels earned, not ornamental. Kai Hahto’s drumming is thunderous and precise, always anchoring the storm even when the tempo whips sideways. Teemu Mäntysaari weaves clean counter-melodies around Jari’s rhythm barrages with a clarity that recalls the self-titled 2004 debut, but the palette here is wider. You can feel the years of tinkering in the stacks of choral harmonies and folk colours that bleed into the blast beats.

If you’ve followed the saga, you already knew two touchstones. The band road tested The Way of the Fire live more than a decade ago, and on record it finally roars with the authority it promised. The chorus hits like sleet against glass, then the lead break opens into pure light, the kind of melodic rush that made so many of us latch onto Wintersun in the first place. Storm, teased for ages and out as a single ahead of the album, might be the clearest statement of purpose here. It starts on a cinematic swell, then drops into a gallop that never loses the thread. The orchestration is immense, yet there is space for the bass to punch and the ride cymbal to sparkle. That balance is the album’s quiet triumph.

Production can sink a record this dense. Jari has always worn the producer hat, and here he leans into the complexity without turning everything into soup. Guitars sit a touch drier than on Time I, which helps the rhythm work cut through the choral blooms. The listening sweet spot is loud on good speakers or, better yet, a decent setup with the Time II vinyl. The low end feels warmer and the stereo image opens up, those glacial pads blooming out past the speaker edges. It is the kind of record that makes sense to hold in your hands, and it slots neatly next to other Wintersun albums on vinyl if you have been building the set.

There is history wound through these songs. Finnish metal has a knack for drama that never tips into kitsch, and Wintersun still channels that lineage. You can hear echoes of folk modality, cinematic scoring, classic shred, and the high romance of Euro power metal, but it never stops sounding like Wintersun. The band’s core line-up remains part of the story, too. Jari’s multi-instrumentalist approach and perfectionism are baked into every bar. Teemu’s guitar work is sharp and lyrical. Jukka Koskinen’s bass lines glue the choirs to the chugs with a musician’s ear for harmony. Kai’s meter is iron. There are few groups who can stack this many layers and still feel like four people playing songs.

It would be easy to make Time II all about the wait. Yet what sticks with me is how musical it is. There are passages that feel almost liturgical, then a riff barges in that could level a club. The payoffs come often, but never cheaply. It sounds like an album made by someone who refused to compromise the picture in his head. You may prefer the rawer sweep of the debut or the icier sheen of Time I. Fair call. For mine, this is the most cohesive Wintersun record since 2004, and the one that best captures the band’s grand design.

If you are crate digging at a Melbourne record store, keep an eye out for the Wintersun vinyl spine that reads Time II. If you are hunting from the couch, it is a no brainer to buy Wintersun records online while the pressing is fresh. Wintersun albums on vinyl tend to disappear and get pricey, especially for fans in the vinyl records Australia scene. However you spin it, this is the long-promised second half done right, a winter tale finally told with clarity and fire.