Review Of The New Winterwald Album "Der Jagasprung".
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Band Name: Winterwald
Album Title: Der Jagasprung
Tracklist:
Intro
Die Klagestimmen
Zwischenspu
Das salige Fraulein
Der Jagasprung
Das Trauerkruglein
Sebastian Inwendig
Die WeiBe Rose von Kloster Arnoldstein
Outro
Running Time: 31:19
Release Date: May 9, 2026
Rating: 10/10
Label: Running Wild Productions
Version Reviewed: Cardsleeve CD
Band Member:
W.K. - Everything
Guest Musician:
Svart Necrohell - Piano On Track 1
Waldesklang - Harp On Tracks 4, 7 And 8
Additional Album Info:
Mastering By Thomas Schatz Totenklang Mastering
Photography By W.K.
What we have today is “Der Jagasprung”, the second album from the Austrian band Winterwald. This is the second album I've had the pleasure of reviewing from the band. My first experience with this one-person band was a good one, so let’s dive deep into the snowy mountains of Austria and see if this is as worthy as its predecessor!
The intro sets the mood for the album and uses all kinds of sound samples from nature. Owl and bird sounds, wind blowing and trees creaking in the wind. These sounds are mixed with beautiful piano and dreamy keyboards that at times give the album a great dungeon synth vibe. I swear I hear a cello and/or violin or something, but those instruments are not credited, so they may have been done with a synth. Maybe it’s the harp listed in the credits. Either way, it’s beautiful and emotional. Elsewhere on the album there are the sounds of horses, rivers flowing, flies buzzing, children laughing and playing, dialog, footsteps in the snow, sounds of battle and more. The music is rather raw black metal of the very blackened variety. Fast drums, faster yet sort of melodic and hypnotizing guitar melodies. Even though the bass is pretty far in the background, you can still hear it plucking away. It kind of has a 90’s black metal sound, but way more varied. Where this band is unique is in the vocal department. I mean, there are some raw total black metal vocals that sound great to me, but everything is mostly narrated and the album is otherwise instrumental. The “lyrical” content is more of a storyline. A concept if you will of sounds and sound samples. The concept for the album is as long and storied as it is interesting. I was given the concept in detail, but I will leave it up to you to read it as the album plays so you can discover it for yourself. In a nutshell, it is based on “The dark depths of Austrian mythology and Alpine folklore”. The sound of the album is great. Overall, it has an excellent mixing and mastering, but it also has a slight raw sound to it which fits the music extremely well.
The cover art is a photo of a sword stuck into a big mound or hill beneath a snowy and dark sky. Though I was given the CD version, these are only for promotional use. The album is available widely on cassette and digital. Because of this I was given the cover for the cassette with the CD. In that it has the synopsis for each song in Austrian German as well as the album and band member info as well as some photography and a photo of W.K.
“Der Jagasprung” is a perfect album to me. It is totally unique and full of sound samples that I have always loved in music. This garners my highest recommendation possible, especially for those that seek out the untreaded territories of extreme metal.
As always, I like to ask my readers to support the bands, labels and artists by purchasing the physical copies of the albums you love or by going to their Bandcamp and/or Facebook pages and supporting them there.
Running Wild Productions Bandcamp.
Blasted By Britton Facebook Group.
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