I don’t believe I’m writing this in 2024, but Wintersun has officially announced that the insanely long-awaited album Time II is finished. We’re supposed to learn more about the album next week, according to an official statement, but holy shit — real fucking progress.
For the uninitiated, Time II was supposed to come out alongside Wintersun’s last full-length release, Time I. That was back in October 2012, meaning it’s been 11 years, two months, and 24 days/4,102 days/586 weeks/98,448 hours/5,906,880 minutes/354,412,800 seconds… or in other words, a long fucking time.
In all that time, fans have had to wait for what should by all measures be an amazing piece of symphonic death metal. Yet issues apparently mired the production of Time II and as a result, we’ve had to endure the long wait while Wintersun tried to collect money from fans and got in a fight with Nuclear Blast.
Each member of the band commented on the state of the album, which you can read below:
Vocalist and guitarist Jari Mäenpää: “This album has been the biggest challenge in my life and I’m still kinda surprised it is finally done.”
Bassist Jukka Koskinen: “The day finally came: TIME II is done!! Couldn’t be happier!”
Drummer Kai Hahto: “I thought this day would never arrive and when Jari sent me a message that TIME II was ready I still couldn’t understand that we were finally done after all the obstacles and challenges. I am more than happy now. Cheers!”
Guitarist Teemu Mäntysaari: “Whoa, I think Jari surprised us all! I’m happy that after all these years the album is finally ready!”
So yeah… it looks like we’re finally going to learn more about this record after so much time sitting and waiting. Here’s hoping it lives up to the hype and doesn’t end up being the symphonic death metal Chinese Democracy…