Paysage d'Hiver

Released in 2020, Im Wald may be the debut album of Paysage d'Hiver, but this is hardly the first recording of this project. Wintherr the man set this one-person (naturally) black metal project in motion in 1998, and in the intervening years put down a dozen plus recordings (demos, really, though most are album length if not longer), gradually building an underground audience. Im Wald is massive, over 2 hours in length (and not a rehash/compilation of earlier works), featuring 9 ten-plus-minute icy, first-wave-influenced wall-of-sound black metal slogs alongside several well-placed ambient, forest-y interludes. Given the song lengths and the relative sameness of the songs (and the gradual ebbs within each song), it should be monotonous, but somehow it isn't. Granted, it may be difficult to listen to this in its entirety in one sitting unless as background ambience, but the songs are strangely compelling -- the shrieked vocals would be too much if in the foregound, but buried in the mix they enhance the primal iciness of the riffs. The entire affair is quite remarkable, even if the target audience doesn't extend beyond black metal purists. Two albums have been released since Im Wald, and there have been reports that Wintherr may be moving on to something different, whether that be with this project or not is unclear.

---

Discography

Copyright © 1995-2026 BNR Productions