BORKNAGAR – Winter Thrice

February continues to spread its confusing weather throughout the world, but one thing remains constant. Love is in the ear! With the sensual shreddery of Winter Thrice, you can forget about falling short with a Valentine’s Day card. This is an entire Valentine’s day album! BORKNAGAR have painted a phenomenal paradise of musical poetry that evokes the dire need to surround yourself with the endless passion and beauty of nature. Release yourself from troublesome bonds. Expand your consciousness to the realms that engulf you and prepare to fall in love with the powerful imagery of Winter Thrice!

As you let go, the very fabric of the universe compels your incorporeal form to traverse The Rhymes Of The Mountain. The gargantuan sounds and wailing echoes prove how small we truly are in the timeless body and wisdom of the waking world. Soon, you are swept up in the groaning frost of Winter Thrice. Wandering to the edge of existence, the cold, frozen truth is revealed.  Every melody that has woven itself into being, will inevitably succumb to the furious drums and the raving vocal forces of the void. From the nothingness, a new vessel begins to shape. Cold Runs The River violently pumps life back into a now desolate landscape. Blood and water are blast-beaten through the rocks. The slowness of the world it met with the energetic voice of flesh covered bones. The dance of evolution whisks your new form away from the ground floor of creation to give you a wider view of what is to be. New foundations are laid by the retro sounding synths of Panorama. The restructuring of existence spurs on with a dreamlike delivery that will make you question if what you’ve been subjected to is even real. Everything is familiar, and yet somehow different. That’s When Chaos Calls, breaking you from your newly formed thoughts. A musical swarm of cacophonous bliss suddenly cuts away at the frozen cocoon. The sound of water rushing over you rings out like a haunting choir of guitars. This Erodent sparks the progress and demise of existence once again. Even after the aquatic chaos begins to subside, a slow grind of crashing waves wears eerily at the infant life. Positive and negative energy are carried throughout history as the world begins to wither and wash away once more. All that remains is a Noctilucent mockery in the sky. The sluggish frost that once proceeded the end now lingers above in a poignant display. All of this will happen again. Pain, beauty, life, and death. They all take many shapes. With the Terminus of another existence inching closer, you are forced to seek refuge from the extinguishing torrents. A doomed feeling urgently grips you, shooting your spirit up the mountains and your eyes to the skies. If only your form could become one with the unending universal fabric above, instead of falling prey to Dorminant Winds. Evil, space-like gusts tear through the trees. A howl reminiscent of winter snuffs out all surrounding life and steals the ground from which you sought refuge. You have tasted the end, for now.

Winter Thrice is progressively fueled poetry spoken through a lucid dream. Both voice and instrument are perfectly intertwined. If you can allow yourself be become immersed in an album, you are in for an immense treat. The tale and emotion that BORKNAGAR portray are not one I will soon forget.