Winter is without a doubt my favourite season. The darker, colder days make for some intense listening experiences which you wouldn't not feel on them bright summer evenings. So as we enter the grimmer section of the year, what albums do we always see ourselves dusting off? I'm listing black metal, but add whatever you feel gives you that wintery tingle.

Nokturnal Mortum - Lunar Poetry
Forest - Заревом Над Прахом
Sort Vokter - Folkloric Necro-Metal
Hateforest - Battlefields
Imperium Dekadenz - ...und die Welt ward kalt und Leer
In the Woods... - Heart of the Ages
Ulver- Nattens madrigal: Aatte hymne til ulven i manden
Arckanum - Kostogher
Horn - Jahreszeiten
Veles - Black Hateful Metal
Epheles - L'ombre de la croix
Rimfrost - A Frozen World Unknown
Hantises - Frozen Shadows
Fimbulwinter - Servants of Sorcery

Probably Wintersun in my Sauna, or not...
I actually like to listen to horror sampled death metal/goregrind when it is early in the morning and still dark, Mortician, Impetigo etc.

Same damn stuff I always listen to. Any metal, ANY time of the year.

Agalloch, Agalloch, Agalloch.

And maybe Agaylloch too.

I woke up to a ground blanketed in snow this morning and an urge to pull Mournful Congregation's 'The June Frost' from the shelf.

I can't stand any music in the morning - 99% of the time I drive to work in silence, even now that my commute is 40 minutes long...But for return trips and weekend driving during the winter I always break out Taake, especially Noregs Vaapen, and will likely do so with the upcoming LP as well. Vikinligr Veldi is another winter favorite, alongside the first three Arcturus albums - The bell-heavy synths in Aspera Hymns Symfonia give the album a very Christmas-y feel, believe it or not.

Some good shit on your list OP, it's been too long since I listened to Battlefields (but perhaps let's avoid big lists with no description?). When it starts getting a bit snowier, I'll definitely be blasting some black metal from the Quebecois scene; Gris, Forteresse, Sombres Forets, Neige et Noirceure, Csejethe, Monarque ect. Paysage d'Hiver will obviously get a lot of rotation, no other band captures that trapped in the middle of a blizzard feeling for me. Needless to say, winter is a time where I listen to a lot of black metal. Will probably go through a second wave binge at some point, too.

Cocteau Twins. Hmph!

Predictably, my listening habits are affected by seasons, the autumn and winter being much heavier on black metal than spring and summer, when I tend to listen to more power metal and explore genres I'm less familiar with. I've found some reasonably good newer Nordic black metal bands lately, so I think I'll keep doing that and blast some classics when I'm not feeling so inspired.

To mention two bamds with misleadingly crap names, Skitliv and Svart are pretty good, and I'm going to try to find some more bands in their respective scenes and styles.

Most likely I'll be in another Paysage d'hiver binge within a few weeks. I found myself wanting to listen to "Das Tor" again recently, but decided to hold off until just about now...

Usually it's a lot of BM. This year's list:

Immortal-anything and everything

Dissection-Storm of the Light's Bane

Sacramentum-Far away from the Sun

Behexen-Mouth of Leviathan

Amorphis

Bathory-Pretty much any album, except maybe Octagon and Requiem

With snow and cold hitting I listened to the last three tracks of Sons of Northern Darkness on the way into work.

I find it's more summer that leads me to listen to certain bands; winter's pretty unremarkable here, just rain and half-arsed clouds.

Good material right there! I love taking walks in the winter. Norway is a nice place, but it looks grim in the winter, and ice cold black metal just feels right when the senses take in snow-covered vistas while listening to it. I'll take Nattens Madrigal for a spin later!

For me it's black metal season, probably things like taake.

My hunger for darker stuff grows in winter. Thus far I've been listening to At The Gates' The Red in the Sky is Ours (an all-time favorite) and With Fear I Kiss The Burning Darkness, with Terminal Spirit Disease, Slaughter of the Soul, and At War With Reality thrown in on occasion; Triptykon's Melana Chasmata; lots of Primordial and Winterfylleth. Definitely be listening to a lot of death/black metal stuff for the most part, and so far I've been having a good time!

Judas Priest, Judas Iscariot... same as usual. Some gray, dreary, snowy days call for I Shalt Become or Paysage di'Hiver, of course.

I usually listen to a lot of speedy, flowery euro-power like later Nocturnal Rites, Orden Ogan and Winterlong during the wintry months. Also some Autumn, After Forever, other cool, chilly female fronted bands.

Winterlong isn't as known, so...



I typically listen to darker stuff like DM, doom, black, etc and non-metal stuff in the spring and summer, oddly enough. Just fits more for me.

I think I'm gonna listen to lots of death and black metal, reasonable amounts of classical, doom, speed, power metal, thrash, grindcore, hardcore punk, hard rock, blues rock, progressive rock, ambient and also a bit of industrial.

Basically I don't really have any basis for predicting where my musical mood will swing during a given period of time. It changes from hour to hour. Top scientists are working restlessly to determine a pattern, so far to no avail.

It doesn't really matter. I am listening to stuff like Mournful Congregation in summer and in winter, for example. Sometimes when I really had enough of all the dark, I put on some Blind Guardian.

Burzum, Old Enslaved, Skalmold, Fen, Primordial...

Have some consideration for people in Australia. Summer is on the way in Australia.

Damn, when I read this I thought Winter was coming out with a new album. Such disappoint indeed. I guess I can hope. haha

I listen to random stuff pretty much always. Although, I tend to get a bit more in the mood for black metal during the winter. Especially cold stuff like Darkthrone and sometimes Immortal, and really a lot of the Norwegian bands in general (or anything that feels cold, grim and wintry to me).

I tend to start listening to more black metal and goth rock around this. Type O Negative is a constant, of course.

Horna. Lots and lots of Horna. I've recently discovered the magic(k)al world of the tons of splits and EPs they've done over the years, easily one of the most prolific black metal acts with multiple members. Anyone heard the Pimeyden Hehku EP? there's this bonus track cut into two parts, and the second half is one of the most badass instrumentals I've ever heard, soo melodic and Finnish sounding.

Have you heard Viha Ja Viikate? That's one of my favorites for sure. Really strong material.

I tend to do the typical shift in focus toward more explicitly wintery-sounding black metal. Lots of Walknut, Gris, depressing stuff like Mortualia, Trist, Drapsnatt, Korgonthurus, etc. Just an increase in the amount of that sort of thing, though, as I'll still listen to really wintery stuff in summer and summery stuff in winter as well.

Yes, actually just looked that one up yesterday. Ars Laternarum and Mustasiipinen are phenomenal. I hadn't realized how much new material they'd churn out for all those splits they do, I've been jamming this one they did with Sacrificia mortuorum and another one called Unohdetut Kasvot for the better part of my day. Finnish black metal is surprisingly good study music.

Now that the snow has settled and there is a wind chill factor of -5, I have mostly been huddled up in the house drinking beer and listening to Immortal and Darkthrone while cursing at the sky. It's a tradition in some ways.

I just took a walk the other day to Klabautamann's The Old Chamber. I don't think it's superior to the album prior, but it's still full of killer music. Probably more traditional and more relentless than the dynamic Merkur, but it still emits this melancholic atmosphere. Our Journey Through The Woods is also great if more raw.

winter's on it's way....in another 7 months!!!! We've already had a mini heat wave. I'm in the process of setting up outdoor speakers on my deck so I can sit in the sun sipping a beer and listening to tunes.

Dissection, Demoncy, Evilfeast, Macabre Omen, Enslaved to name a few for snow trudging.

Winter is all about classical music for me. But I've been rediscovering my taste for metal lately, so we will see. Bloody Hammers (popcorn metal), Hour of 13 and Celtic Frost were my jams for the day, the first real snowfall the metro Detroit has seen this year. 19 degrees with the wind. So that was winter kickoff.

Otherwise, historically, I love Tchaikovsky's 1st and 5th symphonies, anything by Debussy, Liszt's later esoteric stuff, and Goldfrapp's Felt Mountain.

Seasons are not determinate of my musical choices but sometimes I choose something to listen to to accentuate the majesty of nature in her various phases. Winter in Michigan is a strange 6 month trip.

In the middle part of Sweden we're deep into autumn right now and that usually means a lot of post metal for me. This year it has mostly been about Neurosis the sun that never sets. I too am effected quite a lot by the seasonal changes in regards of how I actually feel which obviously effects my taste in music somewhat as well.

Otherwise there has been a lot of Morrissey (but thats and all year round thing) and I've found myself going to sleep to Symphony X's paradise lost for a few months now. Neither is typical autumn music for me though.

I was supposed to listen to a lot of post-bm, dsbm, death/doom and funeral doom in winter. But my listening habit is effected more by personal reasons than seasonal changes I guess. I've been listening to alternative rock, grunge and traditional doom metal mostly with some shoegaze. I'll probably throw in some darkwave in that.

One black metal album I'm really enjoying is Dead As Dreams by Weakling

Haha was gonna post something similar. It's still quite humid now at 9pm.

When winter does hit, who knows what I'll be listening to? Watch this space...

http://churchofvoid.bandcamp.com/album/winter-is-coming Oh, definitely this. It also works in the summertime when you're reading your favorite George R.R. Martin novel.

No, but seriously, I listen to whatever strikes my fancy. It's the same all year round. Never associated seasons with any particular style of music. And listening to ambient black metal with winter themes doesn't really augment my wintertime living experience in any way. Yeah, I guess I just don't get. Whatever goes, whenever.

Windir- journey to the end. Am currently extremely great full to my friend who introduced this to me. The techno like beat at the second half of the song makes me feel like walking through a forest in winter. Am going to listen to Gallowbraid next. Winter and fall have always been my favorite seasons and I tend to lean towards folk or black metal as they are perfect for those seasons. I just love to spin some Agalloch and walk my dog through a park enjoying the season.

The weather has a great influence in me when its about listening to music.

So when autumn and winter are with us I tend to listen to more black metal than ever, mainly the one which is clearly influenced by dark/cold weather. Doom metal and dark folk are welcome too:

Negura Bunget
Wodensthrone
Agalloch
Fen
Kauan
Ghost Brigade
Wolves in the Throne Room
Forest Silence
Avatar(Belgium)
Shape of Despair/Remembrance
Forsth
Immortal
Drapsnatt
Elffor
Ulver
Vordven
Draconian/TOT/TSOTB/Swallow the Sun
Synkvervet

And so on.... its really difficult for me to listen to these bands with sunny/hot weather.

I've been listening to the Katharsis discography front to back, over and over again for the past two months. This is not at all weather dependent. This is "holy fuck do these guys kick ass" dependent.

Lots of Nokturnal Mortuum lately, too.