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There are two main problems with Wintereich, the new album from Finland’s Immortal Souls. First and foremost, while the band has a few cool things to offer a listener on their 3rd outing, none of them are particular new. Toiling away in the Scandanavian melodic death metal sandbox, they’re pretty much just making cosmetic changes to the sand castles built by the likes of “Dark Tranquility” and, especially “Children of Bodom” before them.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing, since those are pretty good bands to emulate, if emulate you must. Wintereich isn’t a bad album, it’s just a derivative one, and a repetitive one, at that. The second major knock on Immortal Souls is that most of their songs fit neatly into a single slot – one fast, heavy, solo-laden, death metal growl enhanced stereotype to describe them all!

Well, almost all the songs fit the same mold. The album opener, Nightfrost, gets things going in a bit of a thrashy, almost speed metal direction, before Immortal Souls finds its frozen northwoods groove. Again, the sea this band trawls is a rich, well-stocked one, so it’s not necessarily a pain to listen to 12 competently executed, head-bangingly delivered slabs of metal. It’s just that when they go away from the formula, Immortal Souls does pretty well then, too. Like the aforementioned opener, what with guitarist Esa Sarkioja breaking out his speediest licks and going to town. Or the last couple of tracks, Black Water and the title track, where Aki Sarkioja exhibits a nice clean vocal to counterpoint his usual growl. The clean vocals are used to good effect, and really liven up the songs, and you're left wondering why they weren't employed anywhere on the rest of the disc.

Wintereich is a decent disc, really it is, and if you’re a fan of “Children of Bodom,” definitely look these guys up. But listening to what Immortal Souls has to offer on this CD, and I can’t help but ponder what more they might be capable of.