''The Celtic Winter'' is the first
EP by the
black metal
Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, a shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, raw (lo-fi) recording, unconventional song structures, and an emp ...
band
Graveland
Graveland are a Polish pagan black metal band which was formed in 1991 by Rob Darken (born Robert Fudali). They began as a black metal band before adopting a pagan and Viking metal style. The lyrics and imagery of Graveland are strongly inspi ...
. It originally was planned as an EP for ''Hammer of Damnation Records'', but this release failed due to financial reasons. So it was released as the 6th demo tape in 1994 on ''Melissa Productions''. It was re-released on MCD format in 1994 with only three songs, and then re-released again on CD format in 1996 by
No Colours Records
No Colours Records is a German mail order and record label from Mügeln specialised in black metal.
Background
No Colours Records mostly releases black metal records, but has also released records related to other extreme metal genres such as t ...
. It was rereleased several times by different labels. It was indexed by the German
Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons in September 2008,
[BAnz. no. 148, 30. September 2011.] so it appears under the name ''Evarg - TCW'' at the No Colours Catalogue.
Track listing
# ''Intro'' - 3:16
# ''Call of the Black Forest'' - 4:22
# ''Hordes of Empire'' - 4:38
# ''The Night of Fullmoon'' - 5:32
# ''The Gates to the Kingdom of Darkness'' - 6:42
# ''The Return of Funeral Winds'' - 8:25
# ''Outro'' - 3:17
Style
The songs are written in middle tempo. Darken's vocals contain a lot of
reverb
Reverberation (also known as reverb), in acoustics, is a persistence of sound, after a sound is produced. Reverberation is created when a sound or signal is reflected causing numerous reflections to build up and then decay as the sound is abs ...
. He used atmospheric keyboards and slow guitars, which had some similarity to
Celtic Frost's ''
To Mega Therion''.
[''Satan Stole My Teddybear music reviews - Graveland''](_blank)
.
Reception
Akhenaten of
Judas Iscariot
Judas Iscariot (; grc-x-biblical, Ἰούδας Ἰσκαριώτης; syc, ܝܗܘܕܐ ܣܟܪܝܘܛܐ; died AD) was a disciple and one of the original Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ. According to all four canonical gospels, Judas betraye ...
called ''The Celtic Winter'' together with ''
Det som engang var
''Det som engang var'' (Norwegian for ''What Once Was'') is the second studio album by the Norwegian black metal solo project Burzum. It was recorded in April 1992 and released in August 1993 through Burzum's own label, Cymophane Productions.
B ...
'' of
Burzum and ''
Transilvanian Hunger
''Transilvanian Hunger'' is the fourth studio album by Norwegian black metal band Darkthrone. It was released 17 February 1994 by Peaceville Records.
Recording
''Transilvanian Hunger'' was the first Darkthrone album to be recorded as a duo (N ...
'' of
Darkthrone as one of three albums, which were important for his idea of Black Metal.
[Al Kikuras]
''Judas Iscariot Interview''
''Balor'' of
Morrigan called it a "great release".
References
1994 EPs
Graveland albums
Demo albums
{{1990s-black-metal-album-stub