Review by Adam M on May 14, 2019.

This album has the imprint of John Arch and Jim Matheos all over it, though it features a number of other excellent musicians as well.  Arch’s characteristic high pitched and nasally croon nicely fits over the top of these tracks.  There is a wonderful atmosphere that the album title nicely reflects in the wintery tone of the songs.  There is a definite throwback to the older Fates Warning material, but nicely put within a more modern context. 

The songs here are tight and well constructed pieces that run for a reasonably long run time to get their point across.  The glory times of Fates Warning have been updated for the present time and are done more effectively than even the band Fates Warning are capable of these days.  There is an extensive use of dramatic dynamics to make things as interesting as possible.  The guitars are done nicely and have a lot of shifts and changes associated with them.  However, it is John Arch’s voice that is the biggest high point on the album.  He sounds like a man half his age on these songs and his voice only accentuates the songs instead of dragging them down.  Could this album be even better?  Yes.  Despite being progressive, the songs could be even more so and more intricate than they are.  There is still a reasonable amount of complexity to be found here.  Also, the songs aren’t quite as memorable as those from the Awaken the Guardian era and take more time to wrap your head around. 

The experience is infinitely worth it, however, as this is one of the best albums of the year.  It has the right atmosphere to pull the listener in at any time and makes for a grand listen that comes to an epic close with Kindred Spirits.  With a few improvements the band could be even better and produce some of the most exciting music of this generation.  Regardless, Winter Ethereal is an excellent release and one that must be checked out by fans of John Arch and Jim Matheos and the early material by Fates Warning featuring Arch.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Review by Felix on May 2, 2019.

Blue Blood was Atrocity's first official step into business and from today's perspective, it reminds us of two things. Firstly, the band's beginning had absolutely nothing in common with its later polished outputs like the terrible Werk 80 crimes. Secondly, Nuclear Blast was an anarchic label in its early days. Markus Staiger and his comrades had a great affinity for grindcore, crossover and hardcore. The basis of this EP is death metal, but it flirts intensely with grindcore. 

No doubt, debutants have the right to offer a strange package, but they should not throw a product on the market whose only function is to show their immatureness. Unfortunately, Blue Blood, disgraced with a stupid artwork, falls exactly into this category. The mix of bulky riffs, blast beats, aggressive yet aimless outbursts and early Napalm Death-like vocals indicates a certain potential from time to time, but the implementation remains on a weak level. The compositions are rather a noisy succession of individual parts, it doesn't matter whether or not they blend with each other and aggravating the situation, many of them don't leave an effect. The structured second track marks the exception in this context, but it just sounds like an experiment gone wrong. 

The sound is rather amateurish, but still okay for an EP of a newcomer on a recently founded label. The level of released energy is also acceptable, but so many awkward sequences destroy the overall impression completely. The drum intro sounds like the first lesson of a seven years old child that has never previously had the sticks in its hand, the crude second track delivers nothing but a paralyzing agony and sometimes it seems as if each and every musician plays his own song. That's not the way it should be and from time to time I have the feeling the band presents metal versions of free jazz pieces.

Needless to say that the production remains on a pretty low level. The rattling drums and the monotonous guitars create a tedious sound experience. All in all, stay away from this EP. Even those who like technical death metal will have many other items which are worthier to discover.

Rating: 1 out of 10