Winter Blood — Only Dust Remains Review
Winter Blood is a US Melodic Black Metal band founded in 2012, unleashed their second independent full-length, “Only Dust Remains,” on April 16th, 2025, and promoted by GlobMetal Promotions.
The First Three Sins, The Summary
The Fourth Sin, Overall Discussion
OPENING the Gates of Desolation
When the listener presses play, they are immediately pulled into a bleak soundscape with the six-minute opening piece, Eden’s Pale. Greeting the listener with a grand, mournful tone that feels almost doom metal. Synths and driving beats, combined with fierce vocals and tremolo riffs, create a vivid composition, reminiscent of a tainted paradise, foreshadowing the impending descent.
From Frostbitten Valleys to Tempestuous Heights
The journey continues beyond the opener. The listener will find themselves in the frostbitten northern outskirts of Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, a place of stark and silent shadows, just like Winter Blood.
A Storm from the Morning Star, unfurls like the tempest—raging yet majestic. The remaining eight compositions follow, bringing something new to the table. Over a span of fifty-two minutes, these ten tracks offer enough sonic substance to truly sink your teeth into. This isn’t the kind of black metal you just listen to passively, It’s a dense, layered experience that demands attention.
Raw Elegance and Ritualistic Threads
This album, Only Dust Remains, isn’t typical raw black metal. It strikes a careful balance between pure primal aggression and deeper melodic layers. It feels like it has the gloom of doom metal in some songs, the cold shimmer of classic black metal, and an almost ritualistic feel threading through every note. Not only that, but it feels disciplined but wild—an artful blend that takes the raw fury of underground black metal, elevates it with more refined production and emotional depth.
This isn’t just chaos for chaos’s sake; there’s purpose here, as sonic journey rooted in tradition yet pushing beyond.
Compositional Depth & Breath
Only Dust Remains’ structure is carefully thought out. Several tracks, like the first two and the fifth, Funeral Art, stretch beyond six minutes, allowing the music to breathe and build atmosphere. The closing track, Viking Blood, is even longer at seven minutes, giving it a sense of grandeur and finality. In between, Frost and Blood, just over a minute longs, acts as a quick sonic punch. Most of the other songs hover between four and five minutes, enough to explore a theme or without overstaying their welcome.
Songs That Stand, Not Bleed Together
Each track stands apart; they don’t blend into one another but create a diverse and immersive journey. For example, Funeral Art, feels like a slow, mournful dirge—a deliberate piece soaked in mood, like a painting of decay. It’s slow, heavy, and drenched in atmosphere, casting a shadowy sense of reverence over the chaos. That sense of glom is reinforced by surging instrumental parts and vocal outbursts that seem to echo through a cavern.
The eight piece, Reign, is a vivid example—a regal yet wrathful anthem that balances melody with martial rhythms. It’s like an empire fallen but still trying to reach for it crown, a song that feels like a battle cry from a lost kingdom. Then there’s Frost and Fire, a brief instrumental that offers a moment of stillness—a breath before the final storm. Ambient textures and distant echoes give it an almost sacred quality, emphasising the album’s ritualistic design.
Devilmanship & Sonic Craft
The devilmanship in this album is clear. The compositions show a high level of skill, and the arrangement is a fruit of art meticulously crafted. This isn’t raw to the point of chaos but controlled and thoughtful. The recording is crisps enough to reveal details, but still raw enough to keep the underground feel alive. Capturing a sound that’s both polished and primal—the perfect balance of DIY grit and professional depth. The music paints vivid images—stormy skies and crumbling temples—evoking a world both mystical and bleak.
Guitars from the Abyss, Bass Beneath the Ice
Winter Blood’s guitar work snarls tremolo pickings that feel wild and ecstatic. Dissonant chords clash and weave through melodies that swing between aggression and sorrow. The tone is icy, often thick with reverb, making it seem like the riffs echo through empty caves or wind-swept ruins. The bass whispers underneath, subtle but vital. It followers the guitar lines closely, adding weight in slower portions. Occasionally, it breaks free with melodic undertones, shimmering beneath the chaos like a faint glimmer of hope or despair.
Percussion and Synths — Rituals in Motion
The drums—likely programmed or recorded in-studio by the band, but maintain a raw feel. Using blast beats, double kicks, and mid-tempo dirges, giving a relentless drive without sounding overly polished. This keeps the album grounded in it underground roots. The synths are more than background sounds; they are essential ingredients. Haunting choirs and cinematic strings ripple beneath the instruments, elevating the mod into almost ritualistic territory — echoing of forgotten prayers, adding an extra layer of mysticism.
Voices Like Shadows Speaking Forgotten Lore
Winter Blood’s vocals sit with this icy soundscape. They are a mixture of rasped shrieks and low gutturals. These vocals are raw and full of emotion, often slightly buried in the mix to blend seamlessly with the atmosphere. It feels like the vocals are part of the scenery — reading the lyrics in a gravelly voice, as if recalling ancient stories of decay, memory, and existential erosion. The lyrics reinforce the bleak themes the music explores, give a voice to the cold void, destructive beauty of the sound.
A Ritual Concluded, a Journey Remembered
Overall, Only Dust Remains, is a powerful album—a dark, headbanging fruit of art that demands to be played loud. It’s richness and depth make it more than just music; it’s a ritual, an experience. When that final note, the storm from the morning star, fades out, you are left with a sense of having witnessed something primal, honest, and deeply felt. This is black metal in its purest form — raw, heavy, emotional, and very much alive.
Final Saga — Vikings Blood
As the album draws to a close with the monumental track, Vikings Blood, a composition that stretches over seven minutes, it unfolds like a saga—wild, victorious, and rich in legendary brutality. It serves as a perfect conclusion to the album’s journey through destruction and endurance. We want to give a shoutout to GlobMetal Promotions for letting us review Winter Blood‘s Only Dust Remains. Now, we are going to conclude the review by talking about the final three sins and concluding the review.
The Fifth Sin, The Memorabilia
The Sixth Sin, The Artwork
The Seventh Sin, Disrelish
Winter Blood
Manothanas — Guitars, Bass, Vocals, Drums
Mordaine — Rhythm Guitar
Gnarloc — Bass
Manhimus — Drums