Winterlong - Valley Of The Lost (2001)

Swedish band Winterlong is another band with a name I love (and I love the cover of this debut as well), and on looking at the members, they also look remarakbly young and, with a couple of them, rather pudgy.
But what about the music?
Well, I can't say I was very impressed at first, with sometimes quite long instrumental passages that rarely do a lot for me, and Hussni Mörsare's growling vocals (not death growls) are a bit of an aquired taste, but Valley Of The Lost has grown on me somewhat, partly because of the quiet, haunting keyboards that hover in the background, bringing some resonance to such songs as the self-proclaiming "Winterlong", "Valley Of The Lost" and, in particular, the rather enchanting "Mystery Of Life". I'm really growing to love that last one.
It's unlikely this album will ever become a favourite, but there is something about it I like (its relatively short running time of about forty-five minutes helps too), so I think it will continue to please to a certain degree. Whether the band can work on this effort remains to be seen.
Well, remains to be seen by me.  Yet.

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