Winter of Life were initially formed by guitarists Peppe Sgrò and Alessandro Martinelli in March 2000. The first year and a half, despite the doubts on the band line-up, helped to create a tough union between the two and, in September 2002, with the arrive of the young drummer Geky Capaccio, of the bass guitarist Gianfranco Delle Cave and of the keyboard player Dimitri Tetta, it was finally possible to start thinking big. The two guitarists took vocal duties: Alessandro sang clean vocals and Peppe sang growl vocals.
After a year a demo of 6 songs plus an intro was ready, Parentheses, recorded in Naples at Jumping Spider Studios by Maddalena Bellini. The proposed genre is a sort of gothic metal strongly influenced by progressive, death and especially by a very strong melodic component. The feature marks of the band certainty are the very elaborated melodic and rhythmic inserts, and a very big attention to the lyrics. Despite not being so high-quality, the demo was a very big success, emphasized both by excellent reviews and, especially, by an unforeseen fondness proved by a lot of people spread across the world who got to know the band through the web. Thanks to these contacts and to the good impression given to some concert promoters, even with no one’s help, Winter of Life are able to build a fairly good live experience in Italy, with some European exceptions, and to share the stage with bands like Anathema, Novembre, Destruction, Vader and Theatres des Vampires, with excellent reviews, as well as to reach the semi-finals of Metal Battle 2006, all by themselves.
Immediately after the release of their demo there’s a last line-up change: Alessandro leaves the band, substituted by guitarist Dario Bellicoso and singer Elia Daniele. During the years that divide the demo from the first full-length, besides the live activity and promotion, the sound of band grows stronger. Leaved the more Goth kind of sound, Winter of Life open themselves to many other influences, from indie to progressive, from jazz to death, always maintaining that melodic base and the interlocking structure of the songs, even more diverse and unpredictable. Vocal lines gain a very big importance, performed live by the entire band.
Aware of having, in the new songs, a very big potential and tired of having to be relegated in the Italian outskirt, the band decides to record a full-length at the highest of their possibilities. During a year of work Winter of Life rely on Giuseppe Orlando (Novembre, Klimt 1918, Stormlord, etc.) at the Outer Sound Studios in Rome for recording and mixing, and on Mika Jussila (Amorphis, Apocalyptica, Children of Bodom, Him, Nightwish, Novembre, Sentenced, etc.) at Finnvox Studios in Helsinki for mastering.
The search for a label is delayed by the waiting for another important part of this hard work, the artwork done by "Seth" Siro Anton (Paradise Lost, Oceansize, Moonspell, Soilwork, etc.) who has the task to present at it's best a cd in wich the band believes so much: Mother Madness.
Winter of Life then manage to sign for Casket Music, a division of Copro Records, in February 2009, and a management deal with Alkemist Fanatix Europe.
|
