Jari Mäenpää’s Wintersun has been somewhat of an elusive band over the years, with the long awaited Time albums attaining almost Necrophagist levels of infamy. But then late in 2012, Time I, the first half of the monolithic collection finally saw the light of day — and it was damn good. But give a metal fan an inch and he’ll take a mile, so the question everyone was asking was ‘when does Time II follow?’
Then we waited, and it was pushed back and then we waited some more. And now Jari Mäenpää has taken to his Facebook page to explain the situation:
Here´s the reality. TIME I & II and even couple of the next albums would have been out already, if I would have a studio. BUT I don´t have a studio. Studio is like an instrument of making music and I don´t have that instrument, so it´s pretty fucking hard to make albums, especially as complicated as the TIME albums are. TIME II is in good place mixwise, it´s sounding pretty damn spectacular, but there are still some difficult obstacles I´m battling with. Tuska Festival weekend is coming and I´m gonna get wasted! I´ve been working nonstop since January (and not just the TIME II, new material and there´s some other new things boiling under as well). So don´t come ask me at Tuska “when´s TIME II coming out?” hahah! Unless you buy me a beer!Which is understandable, but a shame. No one would ever want to admit the music we love so much is sometimes limited by money, but it’s true, so here’s to hoping Mäenpää can traverse some of those ‘difficult obstacles’ he’s referring to.
But I’m guessing this means we probably won’t be getting Time II this year. Once again, NOT set in stone, but still.
– DL