Vintersorg

Emerging from Sweden, the heavy metal group Vintersorg—whose name means Winter's Sorrow—initially formed in 1994 as Vargatron, or Wolfthrone, weaving folk, Viking, progressive, and black metal threads into an atmospheric style. Andreas Hedlund and Mattias Marklund established the project in the coastal town of Skellefteå, relying on assorted session musicians to complete each recording. Their earliest material rested on black metal roots, yet folk melodies threaded among harsh vocals and blastbeats moved into the foreground with the 1999 release Ödemarkens Son. The fourth album, 2002’s Visions from the Spiral Generator, signaled a turn toward technically complex, progressive metal. Jardpuls, issued in 2011, launched a planned four-part conceptual series centered on the elements; Orkan followed in 2012 and Naturbål arrived in 2014. Till Fjälls, Vol. 2 surfaced in 2017 as a direct sequel to the 1998 debut, reclaiming melodic, folk-inflected black metal.