Winter in Eden are a class symphonic rock band, returning to delight us with their fifth album, Never Untold, which can be purchased at the band’s website Winter In Eden | Symphonic Rock Band and all major physical and digital outlets. Oh, and you can also get this on vinyl (their first release in that format).
You can read my review of the previous studio album, Social Fake, by clicking on the button below:
Alongside founders Vicky (vocals) & Steve Johnson (keyboards, orchestration, bass), the lineup here is Arun Kamath (guitars) and OwenAlec (drums) with a guest appearance from Ruud Jolie who performs on four of the tracks (he appeared as a guest on the 2025 digital EP, Therapy).
There are ten tracks on the album, with the opener, Sleepwalk split into three distinct parts.
So, that opener. We have an official video for the first part, In Plain Sight, and that is embedded below, with the piece discussing how we have become the product of the all-consuming technology we use, taking over our identity, attention, and autonomy. Immediately, you notice just how good it sounds, so huge credit to Vicky & Steve on the production front, and Jos Driessen and Joost van den Broek at Sandlane Recording Facilities, with mastering by Pete Maher Mastering.
The riffs which greet us and Vicky’s emotive voice prove the band have lost none of their chops, Kamath in particular showing us some class, and there are some fine symphonic soundscapes created by Steve. At its heart, this is a fine old-fashioned classic rocker, the pace fearsome, the message so pertinent to the times we are living in, the technology taking us over, not our servant, but seeking to be our overlord. A hugely impressive start.
Part Two is The Curse, and that sounds like a mellotron kicking us off, with Kamath showing not only more riff expertise, but also contributing more subtle acoustic guitar. The synths are majestic at times on this, a tale of determination to fight, holding onto human identity, not allowing the algorithms to take over. OwenAlec puts in a huge shift on the skins, and he and Steve form a very solid rhythm section. The guitar solo when it hits us is a fine one, emotive and supporting the song’s intent perfectly. If you think of classic Asia mixed with Rainbow, then you will be somewhere close with this fine slab of rock music.
The suite concludes with Gone, a short mournful paeon to our lost humanity, a gorgeous vocal set against sad orchestration, a lonely piano seeing us out.
Nobody follows, and I think the rhythm section at the heart of this is very impressive, the band showing distinctive progressive sensibilities here. Vicky portrays the struggle vocally so well, the right blend of set-back emotion and forceful power fighting back, and the synths are taking the track into the stratosphere before we get the most delightful passage where the throttle is put into full reverse, vocal effects and orchestration leading us into a return to the grandeur, symphonic metal at its very best – thoughtful music which very cleverly, and deliberately, avoids falling into the (at times) DT trap of pomposity.
My Imagination follows, the tick tock of time starting us off, a short burst, before Vicky closes her eyes and takes us into waking dream territory, a home, happy space, an escape from the horrors of this world, the riffs here forceful, but not in any way threatening us at all, and this is another track where the band sound so healthy as a collective, every moving part in synchronicity, and I really like Kamath’s solo work on this. A superb piece of music which must be a contender for “track of the year” in this website’s awards.
It is always an interesting thing for me when a band so obviously comfortable with making noise such as Winter in Eden have the word Silence as a title. Here it references silence of perhaps an adversary, ex-lover, or former colleague’s actions speaking volumes, and the heroine refusing to take blame, determined to move forward following a traumatic incident. The orchestration on this is subtle and effective, and it is the first time we hear Ruud Jolie on the guitar front, and his riffs and screeches are very good, the solo interestingly quite deep in the mix. A fine example of what we used to call adult orientated rock back in the day (that is not a derogatory term, incidentally), especially the manner in which it builds to such a huge climax, the drums on speed dial.
We have another official video for Prove You Wrong, released last year on YouTube, and embedded below for you. It is classy heavy rock ‘n roll, a delicious anti-corporate message at its heart, the “leader” will get her comeuppance eventually, and a set of lower grade workers will cheer and cheer, in a track fairly thumping along – by gum, OwenAlec can’t half produce some thunder with those sticks of his, the keyboards soaring with sound, and the guitar solo is brilliant. The irony meter goes into overdrive with the final scene of the video. The message here, I know from experience, is the musical vision of many a conversation at the fabled “water cooler” in the office. Incidentally, I played this on edition 88 of my radio show, which you can still listen to on podcast by following the Progzilla Radio link on the homepage of the website.
Rise follows, an exercise in catharsis, the woman rising from the ashes to take control of her life, no more worrying. This is a superior power ballad with a distinctive individualistic touch lyrically, and as she rises, the intensity and heat follow suit, Jolie’s work brilliant, the whole symphony rising to a crushing crescendo at the close as the demons are exorcised.
Impossible Dream is the penultimate track. The piano and orchestration show just how adept the band are at creating moods, and this is accompanied by a perfect laid back drum riff from OwenAlec, but when the frustration of silence is sung, the band provide for an expansive symphonic delight, which I think really must sound particularly good on a decent vinyl stack, and once again, the intensity builds and builds, but never allowing the music to overwhelm this most expressive of singers. The fragility of the opening passage reasserts itself as we move to the close.
The album’s finale is Show Me, some electronica introducing us to the main riffs, provided here by the returning Kamath, and this is a suitably towering end to the album, the synths leading the charge, a fantastic, albeit too short, guitar solo, some more very complex drums, with Vicky imploring honesty in her words.
The press pack with this album contained a quote from Classic Rock magazine, stating their opinion that “Winter in Eden is the best female-fronted symphonic rock band Britain has to offer right now”. On the evidence of Never Untold, it is pretty difficult to argue with that statement. You can, by the way, see them this November at DanFest in Leicester.