Kings Winter is a heavy metal band from Germany formed in 2018, releasing to date two E.P.’s – ‘Forging The Cataclysm’ (2019), and ‘Sonic Silence – The Unplugged Sessions Vol. 1’ (2022), and two full-length albums – ‘Edge Of Existence’ (2021), and ‘The Other Side Of Fear’ (2024).
The band from Konigswinter in Germany are a marriage made in heavy metal heaven, featuring husband and wife Tobias (guitar) and Jule Dahs (vocals). For the new album, the line-up is completed by former Battlesword guitarist Christian Schmitz (guitar, bass and growls) – an album consisting of eight songs in under forty minutes! Forty minutes of hard-hitting heavy metal from all across the heavy metal spectrum – Kings Winter visiting every corner, nook and cranny to deliver an immensely wide array of songs to please every metal fan from traditional metal to melodic death and everything in between! And despite adversity in the shape of a COVID infection suffered by Jule in 2022, which required a long recovery and also changed the pitch of her voice slightly, the singer – and the band – have bounced back stronger than ever! As Tobias explains, “We had to throw away four tracks we had recorded up to that point, adjusting everything to the changes in her voice and start from scratch. Luckily, the vocal therapy made her voice even stronger, because in my opinion, the new album contains her best vocal performance to date”. And I agree – ‘The Other Side Of Fear’ in every aspect, looks and sounds like the band’s best work so far…
…the title song ‘The Other Side Of Fear’ hitting hard and immediately! The band’s trademark bludgeoning riffs ripping the airways to shreds, Jule’s instantly recognisable voice powerful and faultless. ‘The Other Side Of Fear’ (the song) is heavy, very heavy, shuddering the ground with immense force, Kings Winter opening their new album with a boundary-breaking genre-hopping song that’s gonna attract metal traditionalists, progressive metallers and even a few thrashers – the band’s musical remit not limited to just one style of metal. And in keeping with the heavy attitude of the opening salvo, ‘When Tyrants Fall’ exhibits more thunder, fire and brimstone, shaking buildings to their foundations, sending seismographs into overdrive – every seismologist in the world panicking thinking the end of the world is nigh! But fear not, it’s only the Konigswinter cataclysm Kings Winter forging an earth-shattering sound that’s gonna jolt every listener into sitting up and take notice of a band on fucking fire!
And red hot too – the opening brace a pummelling of the most perfect kind! Err, wait a sec – is there even such a thing as a perfect pummelling? Well, there is now – and when you consider I could have used other descriptors such as batter, pound, punch or even hammer, you might just get some idea of how fucking hard-hitting the band’s sound is! So come on Kings Winter, hit me some more – and without having to be asked twice, the band instantly oblige with the up-tempo, high energy ‘The Lost Art Of Grey’. Planting its feet firmly on the monitor of old school heavy metal, ‘The Lost Art Of Grey’ gallops forth with immense head bang ability and an infectious level that’s just rocketed right off the charts! Every metalhead in the world has gotta be smiling right now – I know I am, and smiling from ear to ear too! What a blast the opening threesome has been, the intensity out of this world, the album roaring, popping, and sizzling like a log fire – the warmth overwhelming, as ‘The Other Side Of Fear’ (the album) marches on with pace courtesy of ‘Shadow Of The Cross’. And an even heavier attitude still, the album sitting proudly at the heavier end of the heavy metal genre – and, it has to be said, my favoured end! Especially as you’re gonna find one of my all-time favourite bands there – legendary German metallers Rage.
Now there’s a match made in heaven – Rage and Kings Winter. Just imagine if both bands were to appear on stage together, methinks I’d wet myself! It could happen though, both bands have new albums out this year, and both bands hail from Germany – I’m gonna keep everything crossed (especially my legs) for you never know what may happen. But putting my dream line-up to one side for the moment, Kings Winter strides on with a little nod to icons Iron Maiden – for the intro to ‘Destroyer Of Worlds’ easily matches the elegance of any ‘Maiden intro. Yet as ‘Destroyer Of Worlds’ strides on with Jule’s incredible voice and Tobias’s amazing songwriting prowess, I realise it actually betters the elegance of many – if not most of – Iron Maiden’s songs. And at over seven minutes in length ‘Destroyer Of Worlds’ is the longest song on offer, sitting right in the middle of the album. An album that’s just getting better and better with every song that passes by, ‘Sonic Thunderstorm’ (and how I wish I’d come up with that term to describe the band’s sound) bustling in with a phenomenal amount of weight! Kings Winter are at their heaviest here, the most progressive too, ‘Sonic Thunderstorm’ a tempo changing gear changing romp of pulsating heavy metal to get pulses racing and hearts pounding!
Now I thought the band’s debut album was good, but this one’s eclipsed that in so many ways, ‘The Other Side Of Fear’ (the album) entering its final furlong with the most emphatic song heard so far ‘Revolution’s Name’ – pace, power and an immense melodious intent combining perfectly to deliver an old school yet modern sounding bout of headbang ability! The guitar tone echoes the iconic NWOBHM, my ear-to-ear smile widening with recollections of the early eighties when bands such as Angel Witch, Samson, Saxon and (the aforementioned) Iron Maiden rewrote and redefined the direction of heavy metal – the feelings of excitement and pleasure I had way back then resurfacing with added strength after listening to ‘Revolution’s Name’. What a song! What an album! And what a band! And as the old saying goes “all good things come to an end”, and so does this album – the replay button calling out me to press it, again and again! Damn right I will – but just before I do, the album’s final song ‘The Darkness Within’, brings a more sombre and serene feel to the fore than heard anywhere else previously. The band are in hymn-like territory here, melding a little balladry with a mid-tempo foot stomp and a tonne of intensity to deliver a jaw-dropping finale! And it’s not just the music this time, Jule’s vocal performance is also stunning, soaring much higher than on any other song – what a finish to what has been a fucking great album.
Overall, a superb album of infectious and incredibly attractive heavy metal, highly melodious, and immensely head bang-able.
TRACKLIST
The Other Side Of Fear
When Tyrants Fall
The Lost Art Of Grey
Shadow Of The Cross
Destroyer Of Worlds
Sonic Thunderstorm
Revolution’s Name
The Darkness Within
Kings Winter: Facebook
Release Year: 2024
Label: self-released
Category: Album
Country: Germany
Reviewed by Iron Mathew for Frenzy Fire and Metal-Roos.
