Review: Nordicwinter – Solitude

Review by Jeger

Nordicwinter – Solitude

Record Label: Naturmacht Productions

Year: 2025

Rating: 10/10

Take a moment… Imagine if you will, a place so lonesome, so desolate that it literally breaks your heart to think of it. That place where you were on that day when all was left to hang in the balance. When all was lost: all warmth, all vibrance and all vitality engulfed all of a sudden by a life-extinguishing Winter’s gale; leaving in its wake nothing but fallout, but frozen soil and leafless trees to rickety back and forth in the frosty wind. That day you died inside… Nordicwinter is back…

Depressive Black Metal is beautiful in its spirit. It is, in essence, like the very energy that drives the human spirit. We are here to suffer! For every ounce of joy, a pound of misery and always searching for that better day. Always wondering what could’ve been had you only done things differently. To want to die… The beauty in just letting go. All of this is ensconced in Black Metal of the most powerful kind.

Nordicwinter

Since 2006, Saint-Eustache, Quebec, Canada’s Nordicwinter has released seven stunning LPs; etching in stone its position as a prolific and important scene presence, but more than anything else, just a gorgeous Black Metal project. On November 28, Nordicwinter will release its eighth LP, “Solitude”, via Naturmacht Productions. And the drumming of the rhythm of the opening track, “Whispers of the Frozen Abyss”, following an icy intro, is like the pulse of a dying man. Everything is strained as if the musicians were depressed as they played: an instrument weighing a ton, taking everything he’s got just to play the thing he once loved. This labored sort of agony in every beat and in every note. Overlain by vocals of the Rhys King (Advent Sorrow) variety, only a bit more wicked and a little less tortured. Ominous narrations; bitter soliloquies to usher in the deepest melodies and the most heartfelt drumming; the passion of a condemned man’s final months conveyed through every cymbal strike and every snare pop.

Now, imagine if you will, a place of solitude out in the frozen Nordic expanse, or better yet, the Swedish famines of the late 1800’s, back when folks experienced hardships wrought by arctic Winters and were forced to either venture out into the barren, wintry landscape for someplace new, or stay and die in their homesteads. That feeling of being unable to escape tragedy, of waiting as “The Howling Void” plays. A melancholy piece that begins with solemn piano-backed guitar melodies that later transition – during the track’s closing minutes – from ambient into a streamline of intrepid beats that carry forth divine riffs. What a nicely segmented, sterlingly composed record.

It’s in the swell of nights such as this one when you realize that nothing will ever be okay again. The only good moments in life pass in the same way as that split second’s warmth of the Sun as it peaks through the cirrus out over the tundra. And the hopelessness of all this feels as though it is emanating through the music—long guttural drawls blanket over loose beats and looser riffs. Just drifting through the moments now, as does a depressed man through his day. And the melodies come in like the wind; like pre-storm gales o’er the dead land.

“Solitude” closes with “As the Last Light Fades”. Finality in its most graceful form: wind-gusted atmosphere, elegant piano and ghostly chorales – all in sync as what has been an introspective experience comes to a close. With “Solitude”, Nordicwinter prepares a desolate path for us to take into the icy Solstice, and it’s been laid with Master-level capabilities on all phases. Sole instrumentalist Evillair harnesses his uncanny ability to create such cathartic music into a most brilliant LP. There are parts to ensnare, parts to bewilder and those to invoke a sense of dread. And what’s to be said of its beauty? Its allure is in the comfort of it. The dark is comfortable and so too can be sorrow. Here, we have both. Relax and just let this one take you away. Let it work on you, change your perspective, change your life… Here’s to frigid years to come! Here’s to Nordicwinter.