Due to the heavy winter rains lately, Melbourne sunset has been showing off nonstop.

#Sunset #Melbourne #MelbourneSunset #WinterSun #Naarm #Australia

This is quite an enjoyable record.
#Atavistia: Old Gods Awaken

Not re-inventing the wheel but fun up-paced #MelodicDeathMetal, the likes of #ChildrenOfBodom, #AetherRealm, #Ensiferum or #Wintersun

This was taken on Christmas Day 2025. Not another usual day but something special in those times.

Walking around the area at the lake, it was windy with clouds. Nearly no other humans, some ducks and other birds.

The sun was weak and only barely broke through clouds in the sky. It was silent and quiet.

#SilentSunday

Camera: Sony Alpha 6000
Edit: none, sooc

#lake #winter #photography #sony #kite #surferarea #kitesurfing #water #clouds
#wintersun #wind

Melodic death metal had a banner year in 2025, brandishing outstanding releases from Aephanemer, Vittra, Buried Realm, Aversed, and others. Given that many of melodeth’s top tier releases came out in the back half of last year, there’s no cause for alarm yet, but with the exception of At the Gates’ opus The Ghost of a Future Dead, I can’t help feeling 2026 is off to a slow start.1 Throwing down the gauntlet with Old Gods Awaken, Vancouver collective Atavistia stakes their claim on this year’s melodeath throne. In his review of Cosmic Warfare, Doom_et_al noted that Atavistia made meaningful strides in songwriting since The Winter Way, but that plenty of room exists to further define an identity outside of Wintersun’s shadow. With the spotlight shining on folk metal influences throughout Old Gods Awaken, can Atavistia maintain their velocity after Cosmic Warfare, or would it have been better to let sleeping gods lie?

For anyone who’s read about Atavistia at AMG before, you know there’s one band whose temple even these Old Gods pray at.2 If you expected that to change, shame on you. With their most flagrant foray into folk metal to date, Atavistia doubles down on Wintersun worship with Old Gods Awaken while succumbing to a feverish case of Ensiferumania. On the surface, this may sound like Atavistia regressing back towards The Winter Way, but instead the band continues to refine the overwrought compositions that Doomy dinged in that review and delivers a succinct forty-three minutes of symphonic melodeath. And though Wintersun and Ensiferum cast the longest shadows, shades of Children of Bodom and Kalmah broaden Old Gods Awaken’s footprint and enrich its well of influences.

Despite Atavistia’s new musical folk-us and turning over half the band since Cosmic Warfare, they submit well-conceived orchestrations and tight performances throughout Old Gods Awaken. Specifically, Atavistia bade farewell to guitarist Dalton Meaden and bassist D’wayne Murray in 2024, welcoming Elia Baghbaniyan and Spencer Budworth in their stead. The quality of instrumentation remains consistent with previous albums, where guitars and synths steal the show as they trade earwormy melodic lines (“Mystic Tavern,” “I Skogens Djup”) that lead into heartfelt solos (“Goddess of My Dreams,” “Ride the White Storm”) and stirring, rustic breaks (“To a New World”). The haunting choirs on Cosmic Warfare have also been replaced by viking gang chants, which makes sense stylistically, but loses some of the flair that helped the former stand out. Longtime drummer Max Sepulveda lays down a commendable performance as well, spicing songs up with well-crafted fills that never overpower Old Gods Awaken’s dense compositions. Besides contributing guitar and supplying his best vocal performance to date, Atavistia ringleader Matt Sippola weaves together a rousing album that stands beside its inspirations.

While Atavistia successfully plunges headlong into folk, the move erodes some of the identity they established previously. Tracks on Cosmic Warfare recalled Wintersun, but just as much reminded me of Brymir and the choral arrangements in The Phantom Menace. Old Gods Awaken forsakes these subtle nods, and though that isn’t bad on its own, the Ensiferum influence is a safer path that deteriorates some of Atavistia’s idiosyncrasies. Additionally, some of the melodies and song structures on Old Gods Awaken blur together. “Mystic Tavern,” “Seeker of Time,” and “Goddess of My Dreams”3 all have similar-sounding leads, and the first two also have somewhat predictable compositions that stand out since the songs are back-to-back, particularly in terms of pacing and the timing of more subdued moments. Ultimately, these are minor complaints on very well-executed material, but diversifying the song structures could unveil even greater heights.

Old Gods Awaken subverts my expectations of what I thought a new Atavistia record would sound like, and even though they lean into a well-defined arena, they do so capably. Monster hooks and intricate, engaging arrangements keep the replay value of Old Gods Awaken tantalizingly high, especially with tight songwriting across the album. I’m curious where Atavistia goes next, as there’s no clear indication of what direction they’ll take. Whatever it is, the persistent urge to evolve their songcraft proves Atavistia will make it interesting and fun, and that every once in a while, you can teach Old Gods new tricks.

Rating: Very Good
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Self-Release
Websites: Website | Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: May 15th, 2026

Self-Titled Saturday | Wintersun (2004, Finland)

...And we're back! As I’m struggling with words a bit these days – and because we still have a handful of self-titled albums left on The List – I’ve decided to resuscitate last year’s Self-Titled Summer series, albeit as more of a reincarnation for random Saturdays. As before, I’m going to try to keep it basic and just point out some brief(ish) facts, letting you fine readers dig further as desired. And so, for our first STS 2.0 spotlight, we’re going to take a look at number 1134 on The List, submitted by Yuki. This is the debut album of the "extreme majestic technical epic melodic metal" band Wintersun, at this stage essentially the one-man project of Jari Mäenpää, previously of folk metal band Ensiferum.

Want to read more? See the full spotlight on the Fediverse at @1001otheralbums.com or on the blog: https://1001otheralbums.com/2026/05/23/self-titled-saturday-wintersun-2004-finland/

Want to skip straight to the music? Here's a Songlink: https://album.link/i/1456964736. Also, a remastered/refined 2.0 version was released in 2017, so here's that Bandcamp: https://wintersun.bandcamp.com/album/wintersun-20

Happy listening! 🤘

#Wintersun #MelodicDeathMetal #SymphonicMetal #EpicMetal #metal #Finland #music #1001OtherAlbums

Self-Titled Saturday | Wintersun (2004, Finland)

As I’m struggling with words a bit these days – and because we still have a handful of self-titled albums left on The List – I’ve decided to resuscitate last year’s Self-Titled Summer series, albeit as more of a reincarnation for random Saturdays. As before, I’m going to try to keep it basic and just point out some brief(ish) facts, letting you fine readers dig further as desired. And so, for our first STS 2.0 spotlight, we’re going to take a look at number 1134 on The List, submitted by @Yuki. Here’s a quick rundown:

• Point of origin(s): Finnish singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Jari Mäenpää started this band as a side project while he was in the folk metal band Ensiferum (as the vocalist and second guitarist), and then made it his full-time gig when they fired him in 2004 due to scheduling conflicts between the two projects. The s/t album we look at here was the debut, and was essentially a one-man show plus Kai “The Grinder” Hahto on drums.
• Tasting notes: According to Mäenpää, this is “Extreme Majestic Technical Epic Melodic Metal”. And by ‘tasting notes’, please note we perhaps aren’t meant to actually taste this one – as the liner notes state (with a happy face behind): “Please buy this album, don’t suck it! Or else…you’re a sucker!”
• Standout track: “Death and the Healing” (but, also, they’re all excellent)
• Where are they now?: Soon after the release of s/t, the lineup would round out with Teemu Mäntysaari on guitars and Jukka Koskinen on bass. Both Hahto and Koskinen would later join symphonic metal band Nightwish and then both effectively leave Wintersun to solely play in Nightwish, and Mäntysaari joined Megadeth in 2023. In their 20+ years, Wintersun has released three additional studio albums, the most recent being 2024’s Time II, as well as a remastered/refined 2.0 version of the s/t put out in 2017 that seems to have been well-received by fans.
• Websites: Bandcamp, Wikipedia, Encyclopaedia Metallum

Happy listening!

• Songlink: Wintersun – Wintersun
  • Bandcamp: Wintersun – Wintersun 2.0 (remastered, additional intro track plus slightly different track order)
• Discogs: Wintersun – Wintersun