Cameron Winter, the man of the moment and former indie darling, has now ascended rapidly to the mainstream since the September 2025 release of his band Geese’s critically acclaimed art rock record Getting Killed. I must first say that I am delighted to see that great success has come for Winter and his crew. It is incredibly gratifying to see these last offspring of true rock & roll soaring to such heights. I am even more pleased that I jumped on the Geese train back in 2023 with 3D Country, long before all the Instagram memes and their SNL performance in January 2026. There is a very special kind of pleasure which arises from being a fan of an artist prior to them finding broad mainstream success, as if one is a visionary tastemaker or a keeper of esoteric knowledge. I take great joy in feeling this way, as do many others; the satiation of the enflamed ego of the snob, the validation of the addled minds of those who trawl the depths of streaming apps for hidden gems. 

 I happen to be both the snob and the far-reaching depth trawler, both the greedy cetacean and the supercilious house cat. Though in all my voyages, regrettably I never really got around to listening to Cameron Winter’s 2024 solo record Heavy Metal. I recall adding the album to my Apple Music library, but I just left it to gather dust as it got buried by Zappa, LCD Soundsystem, Alex G, Hank Mobley, Swans, Dvorák, Pink Floyd, and on and on, until it had left my mind completely. This was until the aforementioned recent “Wintermania” as it were, which reignited my adoration for Winter and Geese and inspired me to finally give the album a shot.  

So far, I have enjoyed Heavy Metal for the most part. As is the case with the vast majority of solo records, I find that it is similar to Geese’s work in terms of its style. It retains the wacky and experimental spirit which they carry and Winter’s signature caterwauling vocals. Though broadly the music is far more subdued than Winter’s work with Geese, it lacks the intensity, vigour, and muscle of some of my favourite Geese songs: “Long Island City Here I Come”, “Islands of Men”, “2122”, and “Mysterious Love”. This is unsurprising as from what I can tell, as Winter personally performed almost all of the parts himself (aside from horns, strings, woodwinds, and drum kit), so he did not have the benefit of a full band behind him. However, this has worked very well for other musicians in the past, such as Dave Grohl on the first Foo Fighters record, Prince’s self-titled album, and Springsteen’s Nebraska. The latter in particular bears some similarity as The Boss was known for his bombastic tales of disaffected working-class Americans, but on Nebraska he decided to peel off the musculature of his art and present its naked weeping heart. Gross analogy aside, I see Winter’s record in a similar light. It is intensely personal and authentic. I feel as if I know him better after listening to all its eleven tracks multiple times over. 

Heavy Metal Album Cover

The overall sound present across the record is, as I mentioned, subdued. Yet at times it raises in its intensity and power, creating a sound touched with a bit of gospel soul and draped in a sort of outsider freak folk skin. My favourite tracks on the album are definitely those of the upbeat sort, which are few but include: the driving “Nausicaä (Love Will Be Revealed)” that is reminiscent of perhaps what the twee child of The Doors would sound like, and the stellar “Love Takes Miles” which is a manual of advice to the youth in regard to love and its trials and tribulations. I also enjoy some of the more melancholic tracks such as the Dylanesque meditation on the curse that is the all encompassing frenzied drive to create works of art which at times befalls artists, titled “Cancer of the Skull”. Another morose track is the spare piano driven ballad “$0”, which muses upon the subjects of poverty and faith. It frames the subject as a worthless, primitive organism without any agency within the unbreakable bonds of the chain of being descending from God, entirely devoid of the possibility of ameliorating their conditions. Generally the sound is fairly cohesive; there are not as many experiments of the quite subversive variety as the record that would come after this one, aside from the first track “The Rolling Stones” which quite aptly touches on the controversial founding member of The Rolling Stones, Brian Jones, with a mention of the musically inclined John Hinckley Jr., famous for his attempt on former actor Ronald Reagan’s life. It is quite clear that Winter is the soul of Geese; this album makes it very clear as his unique vocals are the key to his whole sound, at times crooning and bassy to occasionally annoying caterwauling. His singular voice is incredibly captivating and tends to keep one guessing as to what it will do next.  

Overall, Winter’s debut solo record is not quite as good as 3D Country or Getting Killed. Barring the more upbeat “Love Takes Miles”, I tend to tire of the sadness present on many of the tracks as I am not always in the mood for music like that. But, when I am in the right mood, they hit hard and impart a delightful cathartic feeling. This is especially true of “0$”, as a spiritually searching man such as myself. I am very interested in what Winter will do next, if it will be something in the same vein or a new direction. Maybe there will not be a solo follow up. Who knows what will come next for the Gen Z messiah of rock & roll? What we do know is that it will be interesting regardless.  

7.8/10