WINTERLAND – Life’s What You Make It (2025) *HQ*
With their new album “Life’s What You Make It”, German melodic rockers WINTERLAND return back to their roots. While guitarist Markus Pfeffer also plays with Lazarus Dream and Mystery Moon, and works with singers such as Danny Vaughn (Tyketto), Tony Harnell (TNT), Doogie White (Rainbow), Zak Stevens (Savatage), Dan Reed and Rob Rock as part of his Barnabas Sky project, celebrating international success in the process, Stephan Hugo is a singer, actor, musical director and singer-songwriter. Hugo is also the frontman of the tribute band Ziggy’s Stardust and part of the live cast of the metal opera Dispyria.
Friendship is a good keyword here, because the listener is not expecting an album from another randomly thrown together “project”, but rather an album that was composed collaboratively over a course of 5 years by Hugo and Pfeffer, who have been very close friends for over 3 decades, which you can hear (and feel!) in every note of the songs.
This is classic European Melodic Rock with AOR splashes, Hugo’s smooth vocals and Pfeffer dropping some impressive, extended solos. It’s all very ’80s flavored, no surprise WINTERLAND also does a self-interpretation of the Eighties classic ‘Through The Barricades’ (originally by Spandau Ballet), orchestrated by two musical guests, namely French keyboardist Jorris Guilbaud (HEART LINE) on the grand piano, and singer Sabrina Roth, a close friend of the band, on the flute.
Highly Recommended
01 – I Want Out
02 – I Don’t Know
03 – Reach for the Sky
04 – Life’s What You Make It
05 – Follow Me
06 – Strength in Numbers
07 – PerSonality
08 – After the Storm
09 – Missing
10 – Run Away
11 – Through the Barricades
STEPHAN HUGO – Vocals, Backing Vocals
MARKUS PFEFFER – Guitars, Keys, Bass (1, 10, 13)
BERND SCHREIBER – Bass (All songs except 1,10, 13)
Guests:
Thomas Rieder – Drums, Percussions (All songs)
Jorris Guilbaud – Piano (11)
Thomas Nitschke – Additional Keys (12)
Sabrina Roth – Flute (11)
Heidi Gödtel – News presenter 1 (Song 2)
Christopher Pennington – News presenter 2 (Song 2)
Pre order:
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