The latest in the Wintersun chronicles is that negotiations are going well with Nuclear Blast, and according to frontman and guitarist Jari Mäenpää in an interview with Metal Hammer, Time II may not be the next thing Wintersun releases. Obviously there's a lot of ambiguity surrounding the whole situation, so that's really all we can report on that front.
However, what we can report on with absolute certainty is that frontman Mäenpää will only be handling vocals live from now on. The statement he released is fairly lengthy, and you can read it in full at the bottom of this post, but here's the meat and potatoes of the situation.
Hi everyone!
It is time to start opening the curtains what is happening in the Wintersun camp regarding the future. Negotiations are going well with Nuclear Blast and we hope we can tell you soon more about "IT" and everything else in detail, but first of all we would like to start from a necessary decision concerning Jari's role for our future shows.
Here's Jari's statement:
"After thinking about it for a long time I have made the decision to drop the live guitar, which means that I will solely become 100% live vocalist. This must be a shock to many, but this is something that I need to do. I want everyone to know that I will not stop playing guitar (ever!) or recording guitar on the Wintersun albums. On the contrary this decision will give me more time to play the guitar and learn new stuff in the "studio side of things". I can focus the playing on writing and recording new Wintersun material."
He goes on to say that the new stuff is simply too complicated for him to sing and play live at the same time, and the he feels like one might cannibalize the other and pretty much make his performances not what he'd like them to be. He also says that knowing he doesn't have to play and sing live at the same time allows him to write more complicated stuff for the studio, where he'll still be handling guitar duties.
So maybe new Wintersun is coming after all?
