My appreciation of Winter Madness as a song is growing every time is listen to it, and it’s not easy to clarify why. It’s certainly not only about the composition, playing technique or the lyrics. It’s about something more: the theme intertwined with the emotion . It’s not so much that I like the song per se, but it’s more about appreciation and respecting it as a piece of art. It’s a type of awe the song made me feel that motivated me to write this text.
The melody and lyrics build around the theme as vine grows around a tree, never pinning down exact meaning of the song. It’s the same game good poetry plays, but with the additional component of the sound of music enriching the meaning of the lyrics. In the case of Wintersun, the wide technical repertoire of the composer allows an honest and controlled approach to musical storytelling. This combination creates in my opinion a believable and composed approach somewhat celestial theme of the song.
So, what is the theme?
Winter Madness’s theme in my interpretation is about ambiguous longing for madness - madness as an escape out of the unbearable experience of death. In my opinion, this union of concets (madness – death) is clearly presented throughout the song. This text is an attempt to structure Winter Madness’ personal meaning to me to words. I listen to the Wintersun 2.0 remastered FLAC version with the length of 5 minutes and 6 seconds.
Let’s start.
“Divine creations now destroyed to uncover the haunted atmosphere
Strange visions of the ancient spirits, travesty of man appears
Coldness and the storming winds lurking for prey
The forces of the Winter reign in dreadful way, there's no escape”
(0:12) The verse outlines the picture of a cold and dark scenery. The divine creations are now destroyed which leave cold landscape to the whispering unholy spirits. ”Travesty of man appears” indicates that the main character enters the stage. ”The forces of the Winter reign in dreadful way, there's no escape” is an observation about the Winter’s power that is greater than the main character and he has no hope of getting staying alive. Winter is written with uppercase to emphasize it’s agency as an lethal, soulless force of nature which there is little a man could do.
”I'm following the mistress of night
Through the gates of snow we'll fly
We'll fly”
(0:51) The narration of the pre-chorus turn storytelling to the main character’s point of view. As the Winter surrounds him and starts to fade to the realm of death, he becomes delusional. Here’s the first time the theme of the song is revealed: ambiguous longing for madness - madness as an escape out of the unbearable experience of death. The madness is portrayed as an attractive alternative to the eternal mute darkness of death: madness (Winter madness, perhaps) is a light in the darkness, a glimpse of heaven in the darkest hell. Very much like Sirens in the Greek mythology, “mistress of nigh” act’s as an dangerously tempting, elusive guide to main character’s ethereal fantasies. Htis interpretation of the pre-chorus is strongly supported by progression of the melody around the lyrics. The melody guides the mood from low dark realm of the 1st verse to the heavenly light of the lines “We’ll fly”.
“Winter - The realm of eternal ice
Snowfall and darkness descends upon the vales of time
Distant caress of the sun's fading light
The lands were painted white with the Winter's might”
(1:23) Again, the point of view of the narration is altered. The chorus is sung from the 3rd person perspective. The story is now aimed from the divine heights of fantasy to the somewhat nihilistic acknowledging of the Winter’s might. We can almost see an image of triumph of incredibly powerful, and eternal Winter. From the thematic point of view, Winter plays a role of an opposition to the heavenly madness – it’s real, it’s all-encompassing and yet it has no life force - only death and emptiness. Winter is the harsh reality of material world, just substance and no energy. If we recognize that the melody of the chorus is tied to the lyrics of the chorus, we can conclude that that this piece of melody is the melody of Winter’s power, the physical death.
”My hands are frozen, my mind is at the edge of madness
Oh how many nights and days, I've been lost in this land of sadness”
(1:53) The second verse is sung from the point of view of the main character. He’s physically (hands frozen) and mentally (mind at the edge of madness) weakening.
(2:06) Next we go back to the pre-chorus where main character (1st person narration) is descending to madness, ergo rising to heavens.
(2:29) Afterwards follows the chorus where narrator (3rd person) is acknowledging Winter’s inevitable, nihilistic triumph.
Solo (3:04) paints the main character’s journey to the boarder of sanity and insanity as he’s approaching death. The core melody, as stated before, represents Winter’s might, ergo freezing to death. The melody is disturbed by the turbulence of chaos, that is to say, madness. The melody is altered by cruising along multiple melodic paths, but every melody ends up modulated with erroneous chords at some point. The diversions from the melody represent the act of the character to escape from death to madness.
Around the midpoint of the solo (3:22), a melody is finally satisfactorily completed. After this point, the solo gains more momentum and the melody advances more coherently downwards, representing character’s final moments. As the character’s death approaches, the melody begins to rise with baroque orchestral instruments (3:53) which follow somewhat similar thematic progression as the pre-chorus rise to divine fantasies. Only this time it’s not the glorious mistress of night guiding him through the gates of snow but the voiceless melody transforming him through the gate of death.
“From the primitive thoughts, under the glimmering snow
And burning stones (they'll rise)
Artful spirit: You don't have to die, you can rule in afterlife
Just concede your soul to me, your life is cheap (no price)”
(4:09) Last lyrics after the solo introduce the final hallucination that character experiences at the passage between life and death. The main character is offered an eternal life (afterlife) by an unearthly sprit. The spirit says that character’s life is has no price which at the same time means that character has no bargaining power (since practically already dead) but also that the eternal life cost nothing – so why wouldn’t accept the deal? “Burning stones” and the spirit, again represent something opposed to the Winter’s cold realm and therefore, character’s magical hallucinations. In the end, the character could not face the death or the Winter’s power with sound mind but resorted to madness.
(4:24) The main melody (the melody of Winter’s might, ergo death) is repeated again, now with style that have more mythical feeling. This, with the (4:42) chorus seals the tale of the Winter Madness.
My appreciation of Winter Madness as a song is growing every time is listen to it, and it’s not easy to clarify why. It’s certainly not only about the composition, playing technique or the lyrics. It’s about something more: the theme intertwined with the emotion . It’s not so much that I like the song per se, but it’s more about appreciation and respecting it as a piece of art. It’s a type of awe the song made me feel that motivated me to write this text.
The melody and lyrics build around the theme as vine grows around a tree, never pinning down exact meaning of the song. It’s the same game good poetry plays, but with the additional component of the sound of music enriching the meaning of the lyrics. In the case of Wintersun, the wide technical repertoire of the composer allows an honest and controlled approach to musical storytelling. This combination creates in my opinion a believable and composed approach somewhat celestial theme of the song.
So, what is the theme?
Winter Madness’s theme in my interpretation is about ambiguous longing for madness - madness as an escape out of the unbearable experience of death. In my opinion, this union of concets (madness – death) is clearly presented throughout the song. This text is an attempt to structure Winter Madness’ personal meaning to me to words. I listen to the Wintersun 2.0 remastered FLAC version with the length of 5 minutes and 6 seconds.
Let’s start.
“Divine creations now destroyed to uncover the haunted atmosphere Strange visions of the ancient spirits, travesty of man appears Coldness and the storming winds lurking for prey The forces of the Winter reign in dreadful way, there's no escape”
(0:12) The verse outlines the picture of a cold and dark scenery. The divine creations are now destroyed which leave cold landscape to the whispering unholy spirits. ”Travesty of man appears” indicates that the main character enters the stage. ”The forces of the Winter reign in dreadful way, there's no escape” is an observation about the Winter’s power that is greater than the main character and he has no hope of getting staying alive. Winter is written with uppercase to emphasize it’s agency as an lethal, soulless force of nature which there is little a man could do.
”I'm following the mistress of night Through the gates of snow we'll fly We'll fly”
(0:51) The narration of the pre-chorus turn storytelling to the main character’s point of view. As the Winter surrounds him and starts to fade to the realm of death, he becomes delusional. Here’s the first time the theme of the song is revealed: ambiguous longing for madness - madness as an escape out of the unbearable experience of death. The madness is portrayed as an attractive alternative to the eternal mute darkness of death: madness (Winter madness, perhaps) is a light in the darkness, a glimpse of heaven in the darkest hell. Very much like Sirens in the Greek mythology, “mistress of nigh” act’s as an dangerously tempting, elusive guide to main character’s ethereal fantasies. Htis interpretation of the pre-chorus is strongly supported by progression of the melody around the lyrics. The melody guides the mood from low dark realm of the 1st verse to the heavenly light of the lines “We’ll fly”.
“Winter - The realm of eternal ice Snowfall and darkness descends upon the vales of time Distant caress of the sun's fading light The lands were painted white with the Winter's might”
(1:23) Again, the point of view of the narration is altered. The chorus is sung from the 3rd person perspective. The story is now aimed from the divine heights of fantasy to the somewhat nihilistic acknowledging of the Winter’s might. We can almost see an image of triumph of incredibly powerful, and eternal Winter. From the thematic point of view, Winter plays a role of an opposition to the heavenly madness – it’s real, it’s all-encompassing and yet it has no life force - only death and emptiness. Winter is the harsh reality of material world, just substance and no energy. If we recognize that the melody of the chorus is tied to the lyrics of the chorus, we can conclude that that this piece of melody is the melody of Winter’s power, the physical death.
”My hands are frozen, my mind is at the edge of madness Oh how many nights and days, I've been lost in this land of sadness”
(1:53) The second verse is sung from the point of view of the main character. He’s physically (hands frozen) and mentally (mind at the edge of madness) weakening.
(2:06) Next we go back to the pre-chorus where main character (1st person narration) is descending to madness, ergo rising to heavens. (2:29) Afterwards follows the chorus where narrator (3rd person) is acknowledging Winter’s inevitable, nihilistic triumph.
Solo (3:04) paints the main character’s journey to the boarder of sanity and insanity as he’s approaching death. The core melody, as stated before, represents Winter’s might, ergo freezing to death. The melody is disturbed by the turbulence of chaos, that is to say, madness. The melody is altered by cruising along multiple melodic paths, but every melody ends up modulated with erroneous chords at some point. The diversions from the melody represent the act of the character to escape from death to madness.
Around the midpoint of the solo (3:22), a melody is finally satisfactorily completed. After this point, the solo gains more momentum and the melody advances more coherently downwards, representing character’s final moments. As the character’s death approaches, the melody begins to rise with baroque orchestral instruments (3:53) which follow somewhat similar thematic progression as the pre-chorus rise to divine fantasies. Only this time it’s not the glorious mistress of night guiding him through the gates of snow but the voiceless melody transforming him through the gate of death.
“From the primitive thoughts, under the glimmering snow And burning stones (they'll rise) Artful spirit: You don't have to die, you can rule in afterlife Just concede your soul to me, your life is cheap (no price)”
(4:09) Last lyrics after the solo introduce the final hallucination that character experiences at the passage between life and death. The main character is offered an eternal life (afterlife) by an unearthly sprit. The spirit says that character’s life is has no price which at the same time means that character has no bargaining power (since practically already dead) but also that the eternal life cost nothing – so why wouldn’t accept the deal? “Burning stones” and the spirit, again represent something opposed to the Winter’s cold realm and therefore, character’s magical hallucinations. In the end, the character could not face the death or the Winter’s power with sound mind but resorted to madness.
(4:24) The main melody (the melody of Winter’s might, ergo death) is repeated again, now with style that have more mythical feeling. This, with the (4:42) chorus seals the tale of the Winter Madness.
@lmy15025 Maan, this interpretation is sick! Gave me goosebumps.
@lmy15025 Maan, this interpretation is sick! Gave me goosebumps.