Thanks for doing this one! Drummer and bassist are with Nightwish currently, guitarist is touring with Megadeth (his Megadeth solos are definitely must-see!) Greetings from the Nightwishland (and Wintersunland) a.k.a Finland 🇫🇮

I absolutely love seeing people discover Wintersun for the first time. A couple voice coaches, and a former cinema composer who picked apart all the fine orchestral nuances and said their music was cinema worthy. Such a jaw-dropping surprise to all the different parts, melodies, and compositional layers (upon layers), that went into making this gorgeous masterpiece. For me the transitions with Jari's range from growls to clean vocals is just phenomenally flawless. And wonderful Kai..like a human Machine Gun (Also known by the name "The Human Metronome", and current Nightwish official member)! The stories their songs tell is just as amazing.. A true 'gallop off on a quest' across snow-swept wintery landscapes, this song has always filled my heart to bursting with love and pure enjoyment. And that familiar Bassist: Jukka Koskinen, also now official member of Nightwish!!! I saw an interview where Kai Hahto was asked: - Now that in Nightwish, how come you don't do that incredible stuff you did on Wintersun? He laughed and answered: - You don't do things because you CAN, you do what serves the song. 🤘😎🤘.

4:29 Melvin: "He looks like someone I know..." Me: "Yeah, from Nightwi..." Melvin: "My old mate Steve..." ...

Yes Drummer Kai Hahto and bassist Jukka Koskinen are now both current members of Nightwish. You haven't seen then there yet. You've done 2 NW songs from the 2013 Wacken concert, Kai joined them in 2014, Jukka in 2021. Apt observation, Kai is known as a human metronome. Wintersun was formed as a side project of lead singer Jari Maenpaa in 2003, he was then a member of Ensiferum. Jari still sounds good, despite losing part of a lung from tuberculosis contracted during his military service. Check out Time , also from this session at Sonic Pump studios.

Already in early nineties Kai Hahto (then a teen) was known as a good drummer and musically gifted. I think he started in a death metal band called Vomiturition back then. Over the time he has practised playing jazz as well and of corpse played for a long time in the Finnish grindcore giant Rotten Sound. Most people nowadays know him from just Nightwish, but he has been an awesome drummer and a musician long before Nightwish. My first encounter with him and Rotten Sound was right after their Murderworks record and I became a fanboy right away. The way Rotten Sound played the most aggressive kind of music, but while doing so, smiled with each other as old friends having fun, like they were, that was so cool in my eyes and ears.

Kai is the current drummer for Nightwish since 2014 and the bassist Jukka took Marko's spot in Nightwish in 2020.

I said what you said on my first listen to this song - it was interesting but not sure if I would listen to it again. But…… it got under my skin, would not go away. Kept seeping back into my consciousness, not letting go, eventually added to my play list. It is now a must play song when I do long haul drives for work. Absolutely epic performance!

Gotta do "Darkness and Frost & Time" from the same rehearsal.

The right side green guitarist plays in Megadeth now,Teemu Mäntysaari

He has a piezo pickup installed in his guitar for the accoustic part, you can see the switch for it near his volume pots.

I have started to call Jari the George RR Martin of the metal scene. The music, when it comes, is amazing, but it takes ages to come and right now we don't know if we'll see another release. As you know, Nightwish pinched both Kai and Jukkis from Wintersun, and the other guitarist Teemu recently joined Megadeth as a touring musician, it won't surprise me much if they keep him. I know everyone will tell you to check out Darkness and Frost & Time from that same session, so I'll recommend something from their first album that I discovered at some point around 2008ish - Battle against time. It's my favourite Wintersun song.

kzfaq.info/get/bejne/lbygZ6eJtbS-d4E.htmlsi=x2dn2fNVq61HU_Zb Here is a solo that Teemu had to learn, after Jari told that he would concentrate more on his singing ❤

I've seen 2 sec of the vid and I already love ya! much love from Sweden!

One of the super fun things you picked up on is the use of polyrhythms in this song. The drums are playing in 4/4 while the guitars are playing in 6/8, such a great tactic that most metal bands don't even consider using.

This song will be on my top 30 or 50 top epic songs of all time. This is a list defined by Zeppelin, Floyd and Supertramp, to start with.

Final part (and some of the good stuff earlier on) Kai is playing 4/4 over double bass triplets, which may sound a bit like blast beats but thank g@wd they aren't. But the BB words have been spoken. For me, it's the opening section that kills this one for me. Starts with lovely intertwining guitar harmonies, almost classical in nature and then.. totally redundant & over the top effing blast beats! Time signature changes, exciting displacements, permutating paradiddly stuff.. yeah, on a technical level it's all a superb work-out for Kai, but when those bb's reappear at the end, I wonder once more: WHY? The vocal filmscore section is pure gold though. Might try "Time", for better coherence as a song and total vibe. Cheers from Amsterdam! 🤘

About the composition a bit: There's quite a lot proggressive elements in this song, Kai mostly playing drums 4/4 against others playing 6/8. That creates interesting tension throughout. And there are few fills and licks that go to other meter as well.

Thanks mate, I'll leave you alone now, although me recommending on "every" video is a wee bit of an exaggeration, it was 3 to be exact. Good reaction and straight up as I expected and yes they are a bit of an acquired taste I agree ...just like Guinness lol .. keep on rockin, I'll look in on your next reaction as usual🤘

11:24 spot on, he told that was lil difficult and want to do less guitar. Nice reaction dude. Try a Koff next time. 😄

I can agree with you. I listen to this band and song when someone reacts to it, but Wintersun is not on my daily listen to list. Also, it's your house and your video, so burp and fart to your heart's content. 😂 Cheers! 🍻

Kai on the drums was the only part that Jari didn’t play himself for the recording of the album.

Xx

And Teemu are in Megadeht

I will be the first to admit that I am not a fan of harsh vocals. I'm growing, slowly, in my ability to appreciate them. That said, for some reason, Jari's vocals have never, from the first, hit me the wrong way. I don't listen to Winterson on my own, but I'm usually in for any reaction is see to them.

The main guitarist Teemu, plays in Megadeth nowadays.

I think teemu has a piezo pickup for the acoustic guitar part

Wintersun could never really grab me, I don't know what it is. they are very technically impressive, no doubts there. Yeah I'm not sure why they just don't land for me, but I don't dislike them by any means. It's strange because they sound like a mix of older Children of Bodom, Trivium, and Kamelot to me, bands which I love.

Time II D-69 😉

Intro is integral to setting up the entire song….