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It takes a brave man to ditch two highly regarded bands to go it alone but that’s exactly what Tuomas Saukkonen did when he waved goodbye to Before The Dawn and Black Sun Aeon and embarked on solo project Wolfheart in 2013.

Naturally there are plenty of references to the old bands, and that Spinefarm have snapped up Wolfheart for a re-release of the debut signals quality, but Winterborn is not the winning formula.

Imbued with the melancholic slow-burn of BSA but without the subtle progressive elements that kept it interesting, Wolfheart’s debut is a combination of bog-standard Finnish death metal albeit with flashes of emotive playing and that glacial weight of Insomnium and Swallow The Sun, heard in Gale Of Winter and the forlorn doom of Breathe. In his defence Tuomas plays as proficiently as ever, and as a standalone record Winterborn is perfectly fine, but it lacks groove, light and shade, all qualities Tuomas has proved he can do brilliantly.

Via Spinefarm

With over 10 years’ experience writing for Metal Hammer and Prog, Holly has reviewed and interviewed a wealth of progressively-inclined noise mongers from around the world. A fearless voyager to the far sides of metal Holly loves nothing more than to check out London’s gig scene, from power to folk and a lot in between. When she’s not rocking out Holly enjoys being a mum to her daughter Violet and working as a high-flying marketer in the Big Smoke.