Songs for Winter

I have very mixed feelings about Winter as a season. But now that the first snow has fallen, it is time to break out the songs that really help me out during this time.

1. "Dim" - Cult of Luna

Lyrically, this song has nothing to do with winter, but the overall feel of the song just reminds me of driving in the dark, through the snow, into the unknown. The vast emptiness ahead of me, a white, barren landscape. Bleak desolation. Stillness.

2. "Enveloped" - Rapture
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKvK1NX4q9Q

The melancholy nature of Doom/death metal lends itself perfectly to the winter months. This song is one of darkness, madness, solitude, goodbyes.

The music is over, there's no-one here
It's snowing heavily
I can't even see my breath escaping
Never to return

3. "Avalost [Vocal Version]" - Seabound
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nV3n-tP_Enk

This song will always remind me of winter, particularly frozen water. I once dated a girl, and one winter night, we walked far out onto a frozen lake and laid down on the thick sheet, snow as padding from the frozen water, and we stared at the night sky above, small flakes of snow falling on our faces. We held hands and laid there in the perfect silence of the night. And it was beautiful. And all I thought of was this song.

The stars are frozen
Layers of ice

Ice moving, peaceful
Exalted but quiet
The chill and the sea
Hurl back memories
Moments of clarity
You are caressing me

4. "Scream" - Kill Hannah
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeAY-hX4E_o

A song about loss, the memory of a loved one, raw emotion. The bitter winds of winter always remind of something that I lost...something indescribable. Not a specific thing or person...just a feeling or an idea.

The winter winds blew on Lake Michigan that night
I carved your name into my arm so I would remember you

5. "A Desolation Song" - Agalloch
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mN4AxskpSAE

In the end, Winter to me really seems to be a time of solitude, loss, remembrance, and melancholy. And this song encompasses it all. All I imagine is a man bundled up, sitting in front of a fire with a glass of whiskey in hand, staring contemplatively into the flames.

Here I sit at the fire
Liquor's bitter flames warm my languid soul
Here I drink alone and remember

6. "No One There" - Sentenced
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGtrNZwqpCY&feature=fvw (one of my all time favorite videos)

One of the saddest songs of all time. Again, the loss and solitude that winter brings.

The desperation and the snow
The feeling of finally coming back home
The melancholy and the hole in the soil so hard and cold

And the wind blows through my heart
Shivers me one last time
As I now reach out in the dark
No one there