"I have a pen in my office at work which says "I ♥ Crete" which my girlfriend and I somehow obtained while on holiday on the island. Now, there are many reasons to ♥ Crete: the sunny weather, the rustic food, the feral cats (the cute and social ones at least), the beaches, Knossos, Xania, the oranges and so on. And, well, here is another reason to ♥ Crete: Winter Crescent.
On their EP, Winter Crescent deliver tasty and expressive progressive metal with a dark feel to it. The EP is quite consistent, yet varied, and I also like how Winter Crescent have managed to create some sophisticated and progressive metal which is still generally quite accessible. There are odd time signature every now and then, and the song structures are not totally conventional, but we are not dealing with music that is too abstract or quirky for more mainstream oriented listeners to follow.
Combining slightly technical things with grooves, guitar harmonies, fluid midrange vocal melodies, and drum patterns which are not always straight yet incredibly solid, Winter Crescent cover a lot of ground in the course of this release, but the dynamics of the EP is such that you hardly notice when one song ends and another one begins (although if you pay attention, there are actually breaks of silence between tracks), and this makes for a very smooth and pleasurable listening experience.
While original, there seem to be references to the likes of Fates Warning at their darker moments and Psychotic Waltz' two first releases on the EP - and those two bands are definitely not the worst places to find inspiration.
The production is not polished and perhaps a bit amateurish to some, but I actually find that quite refreshing in a genre which otherwise is characterized by crystal clear and polished productions. "Battle of Egos" sounds organic and authentic and has a bit of rock 'n' roll street attitude because of the unpolished production.
In all, "Battle of Egos" is a solid release, featuring some tasty and melodic dark progressive metal which is both sophisticated and accessible.If you ♥ progressive metal, then check out this EP.
(review originally posted at metalmusicarchives.com)"
