Jari Mäenpää began writing the music for Wintersun in late 1995,[2] before joining folk metal band Ensiferum in 1996 as lead singer and guitarist.

But underneath all the metaphors to stars, space, vast and cold winter landscapes, it's all about my personal life: my feelings, emotions, thoughts, dreams, visions and hallucinations.

"Beautiful Death" and "Battle Against Time" were therapeutic to write, because they deal with the negative sides of my life and it was good to get those feelings on paper and into music.

"Death and the Healing", "Sleeping Stars" and "Sadness and Hate" are very old songs that still live on, so they have sentimental value.Nino Laurenne, guitarist for Thunderstone, mixed the album at Sonic Pump Studios.

'"[4] The video begins with two shots of steel doors opening, revealing Mäenpää thrashing with his guitar in sharp silhouette against a single source of light, fog simulating the cold swirling around him.

A plane of white-blue tendrils of frost and frozen smoke separates the singer from the viewer; slight overexposure and pale makeup on Mäenpää's face increases the overall effect of coldness.

The shots cut sharply to Mäenpää quickly stepping into the camera's focal plane, singing with harsh vocals into an upright microphone.

[9] The cameo lighting technique is used almost exclusively to separate the band members from the black background or frosted foregrounds, and, paired with overexposure, is effective at making Mäenpää appear deep within an ice encasing.

Eduardo Rivadavia of AllMusic calls Wintersun a blend of "the hyper-fast precision of Yngwie Malmsteen-like guitar playing (witness the speedy "Beyond the Dark Sun") with the melodic sensibilities of post-Helloween power metal (see the more diverse "Winter Madness") and a homegrown passion for folk-styled songwriting descended straight from trailblazing compatriots Amorphis", describing their musicianship as "superb".

Stagno emphasizes the connection between the music and the album's cover artwork, both of which are depicted as "bleak and cold" while retaining a "mystical attractiveness".