Winter crescent were formed at the winter of 2000 by Alexis Ktistakis, in Heraklion Crete, Greece.
After 8 years of line-up changes, the band started to find a stable formation in early 2008. Winter Crescent has performed over the years live in various cities all over Greece and has recorded a debut EP entitled Battle Of Egos, with 7 songs (35 minutes playtime), which was self-released in the early May of 2009.
This EP was rewarded by the Greek Metal Hammer as the Pick of the Month of September 2009 issue and 85% on February's German Rock Hard. Furthermore, it has received very good reviews at various E-zines and Magazines around the world
In the late September of 2009, Winter Crescent went on tour with 4 other bands and they played in 7 major cities. After that, Winter Crescent had their first official video clip for the song \"Battle of Egos part 1\" which was produced by \"Atheaton Media Center\" and reached more than 100.000 views on youtube.
In the summer of 2011 Winter Crescent entered Rock Band 3 for Xbox by having all of the songs from Battle of Egos in the game
In 2012 they played in Chania Rock Festival alongside with Grave Digger and other metal acts.
Winter Crescent are currently in the studio, recording their new concept album
http://www.metalzone.gr/reviews.php?a... The music is a wonderful \"In your face\" progressive metal, with clear influences from Nevermore, with no tiring long lengthed solos, bridges and fillings, the band was not trying to prove that they are virtuosos (oh what does it reminds me), but they successfully proved that they are excellent instrument players, composers and producers (the production is home made). The songs, whic most of them are composed by Alexis Ktistakis, are so careful composed, that the care is qualitatively similar to a cardiac surgeon while he operates. Each note is, if not perfect, almost perfect in the proper position. The vocals of Nikos Spyridakis (ex - Arkenstone, Rex Mundi) are very nice, perfectly touched on the songs. His voice has a special falsetto that makes the vocals even more varied, full, and having the songs being more peculiar. He has participated to all of the songs' lyrics writing, proving that he is good at that part also.
The lyrics provide a dark style, an internal search and a deep introversion. Typical example of this \"paranoia\" is the \"Battle Of Egos\" trilogy. In there, the protagonist struggles with his past sins but also with himself. In a similar vein are the rest of the songs. While the first three songs are part a concept story, we could say that listening to the demo is like watching different episodes from the same series. To further emphasize, some of the lyrics are really theatrical at some points which is reflected to Spyridakis performance.
Finally, the production and the mixing are excellent, don't forget that they are home by Ktistakis brothers. It is a noteworthy try, cause is not easy to achieve that kind of high quality production. Let us not forget that in order to get your music produced and mixed like that, you have to pay a studio and some \"specialists\" a lot of money. Furthermore to say that the songs where masterd by Michael Papoutsaki.
In conclusion, the overall effort worths of praise. It has been an organized effort, from the composition period, until the demo printing. and I think the first step is done in order to escape from Heraklion and their music to become known in Greece and aboard. Good luck to Winter Crescent and I wish to see them once live in Thessaloniki, and believe me, my words are prophetic.
