Staff Reviews

Winter - Into Darkness (reissue)

Review by Noel Gardner

As astonishing as this must have sounded 21 years ago, if it had emerged in any year since, Into Darkness would at the very least have been a comprehensively crushing 46 minutes of music.»

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the cd comes with an 18 page booklet with flyers, posters and liner notes. sometimes a band is so far ahead of the times or just so original that people aren't ready for them and only years later do they get the praise they deserve. this is truly the case for winter. they formed in 1988 out of the ashes of local punk bands doomsday and meltdown. the thriving underground music scene in ny at the time was split between nyhc, death / thrash metal and punk. each one was separate from the other in musical style, politics (or lack thereof) and fashion. somewhere in the middel of all that, winter arrived. at this time, every other band from the area was playing as fast as possible. winter, however, were playing as slow and heavy as possible. they turned lower than any band and their tempos crawled at a snails pace. inspired by bands as diverse as black sabbath, celtic frost, amebix, rudimentary peni, king crimson, hawkwind, carnivore and discharge, their combination of dark lyrics, low vocals and crushing slow tempos built in a following of punks, metalheads and nyhc cross over fance. in long island they would open up for the big death metal bands of the time (sepultura, death), while also playing punk / diy / squat shows with the likes of nausea and apple. the band signed with future shock records and released 'into darkness'. the album became an instant cult classic. as the year's went on, winter's legacy slowly evolved from total obscurity to being respected around the world. winter disbanded in 1991. 20 years later, the immense impace of the band continues. cathedral, grief, unearthly trance and coffins are of the many bands who cite winter as their influence. after a few dodgy re-issues and bootlegs, southern lord proudly presents the official reissue of 'into darkness'.
description from www.roughtrade.com