Bienvenue l'hiver

I welcome winter with sleepless nights and general tiredness, being drunk on caffeine and stress. Just as always; I only want to sleep. And we drift far away in our dreams | Gather further distance while we sleep, as they sing.

Arguably, a good majority of my songs are very winter-compatible - I could write up an entire playlist just of Insomnium songs. Think about it, moody melodic death metal and ethereal symphonic metal - definitely puts an ordinary person in a winter mood. As for I, that is my everyday necessity. So I had a hard time choosing only 20, but here it is. It's probably my favourite out of my seasonal playlists, for obvious reasons.

Here is the playlist on 8tracks for easier listening.

Within Temptation - Ice Queen
This was an obvious choice - I used to really love this song; I still like it, but it's no longer in my top5 WT songs, that's for sure. Their first album had a very different sound than the later ones.

Dark Tranquillity - Lost to Apathy
Not so much wintery as angry-sad, or maybe that's the point. Although this is how I feel sometimes, and I'm especially prone to moodiness during the winter months.

Sonata Arctica - The Wolves Die Young
Santa is real! No, but this is some Christmas shit, just listen to the bells in the intro...

Omnium Gatherum - Formidable
A happier song to combat the dark days.

Gojira - Born In Winter
A very, very good song from one of the best progressive metal bands out there. Surprisingly, it's a song with a strong positive message.

Insomnium - Down with the Sun
Insomnium is insanely winter-appropriate, and this song is incredibly beautiful and depressing as fuck at the same time. My favourite kind.

Evanescence - Lithium
Look, another depressing song. Winter is the season for these though.

Children of Bodom - Scream for Silence
A typical Bodom song about pain, blood, screaming and drinking, in any other desired. Not as heavy as their old songs, but that's what happens to most melodeath bands. I still think it's the best song from Halo of Blood.

Bring Me the Horizon - Hospital for Souls
Is this to subconsciously piss of diehard metal fans? I don't know. This is a nice, moody song.

Amorphis - Black Winter Day
I classify Amorphis as progressive folk, but they are pretty fluid when it comes to genres - Black Winter Day, in particular, was largely melodic death metal. While I'm sad they parted with that, I love their other works too - it's just I'd have loved to hear more songs like this from them.

Mors Principium Est - Lost Beyond Retrieval
A little instrumental goodness for a break, melodeath is good for that.

Soilwork - Song of the Damned
I don't know what is it about Soilwork that makes me think 'this is very commercial', but I do. Don't get me wrong, I like them, especially The Living Infinite, but somehow, they're less complicated or polished as many melodeath bands.

Nightwish - Lappi III: This Moment Is Eternity
Nightwish circa Angels Fall First is like a neoclassical/folk band, not much of the later power metal influenced sound is there. But there's another kind of beauty to their old music.

Scar Symmetry - Timewave Zero
In case someone got tired from the previous slow song, this is here to pick up the pace. Holographic Universe was always uncontestedly hauled as the best Scar Symmetry album, but their newest release comes close. This isn't even the best song from the album, and it's still amazing.

Eluveitie - From Darkness
My favourite song from Origins, their newest record. Eluveitie is the only strictly folk metal band I can say I really like, most seem rather silly to me. (Let's talk about that Ensiferum song titled 'In My Sword I Trust'. I mean, there's the nice music, the potential to be a great song, and then they had to go and write lyrics like that, just why? And I'm still going to their concert.)

In Flames - Minus
Reroute to Remain - I don't care what purists say, the best album of theirs. Granted, it's been 12 years since that, so maybe it's already oldschool. This is one of the milder songs, but I really like the meody of it.

Stratovarius - Dreamspace
An incredible song, great rhythm and guitar riffs. The music is so interesting that I only realize how depressing the lyrics are if I'm paying close attention.

Wintersun - Death and the Healing
I lied when I said I don't like folk metal. I obviously like the folk metal influences in, say, Nightwish, Amorphis and Wintersun. This song is a masterpiece, and there's really no need for other classification.

The Ghost Inside - Avalanche
I put it on because of the title - I mean, it's a pretty average mainstream-ish metalcore song, but so fittingly named.

Kanno Yoko feat. Arnór Dan - von
This is the odd one out, the gift at the end of the playlist. It's a song by Japanese composer Kanno Yoko, sang by Icelandic singer Arnór Dan in his native tongue. It's a beautiful song, even more so if you happened to watch Zankyou no Terror (Terror In Resonance in English). I don't even know what genre this is, but no doubt Kanno Yoko writes some of the solidest soundtracks.