Customer Reviews

Let Mortal Heroes Sing Your Fame

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

ahem...cough...truely awesome epic metal excellence here... My first 'encounter' with summoning was during the glory days of audiogalaxy, when i downloaded Minas Morgul out of pure curiosity. This album features a more polished Summoning but still magnificent and with an unforgettable atmosphere. and what an amazing cover art!
This is complex music (symphonic arrangements, ecclectic instrumentation, heavily used melodic layering) but you'll never skip once through the cd. you just listen to all 55 minutes of it. and then over again, to make sure it's all real.
The black metal vocals are still there, contributing to the album's chilling atmosphere.
I can never recommend this enough.
A new power is rising...

This is wonderful atmospheric music in the vein of Tolkien's works. True, this is considered a metal band but the music is accessible to all and the vocals shouldn't put anyone off. In fact,they enhance the mood of the album.
The band, while they use alot of syth and keyboard, still manages to make it sound like they have an entire orchestra at their diposal. In fact, a considerable number of tracks here could easily fit into a movie score.
The ending song is especially moving as they use a clean male vocals, and what sounds like a chorus to accompany him.
The only reservation that I have is that some of the tracks are repetitive, but overall it still has an enjoyable and unique sound to it.
I hope Summoning continues on the artistic path they have chosen for themselves.

In my opinion that's a pure msterpiece. This album is my favorite Summoning's one. Believe it or not, but it is super highly-addictable music, and thus I listened to it for a full year after I have bought it. Especially the last track. 8)

One of my TOP10 albums, and that'a a LOT! 8)

The sixth Summoning release, is sort of comparable (in sound) to "Stronghold", very loud and happly angry atmospheric Tolkien music. All the songs are fantastic, namely "In Hollow Halls Beneath the Fells", "Our Foes Shall Fall", "The Mountain King's Return" and "Ashen Cold". The artwork is very detailed and impressive as well (actually, all Summoning's artwork is the real image(s) of middle earth). The pics of Protector and Silenius are crazy as always, too. Overall a good listen while accompaning all related LOTR books.

I once got lost in a land I didn't know while listening to this recording, and loved every moment of it...

Ok, that might have been a little over-dramatic. But in the middle of no-mans-land, Oregon; in an absolute oasis of pacific northwest scenic beauty, there is a resort city called Sunriver. It consists of about four-hundred ornately designed, almost castle-like log cabins, a large market-place, two hundred miles of bike-path, and an endless sea of grass and wheat feilds that are beautiful enough to simply gaze at rather than walk.

Without trying to sound too medieval; it was an awesome golden sunset on a friday afternoon and I began to smell adventure in the hills. Now, I must be frank, I am about as far off from a D&D freak or Everquest-junkie as you can possibly be, with musical interests that lay mostly in Tool, NIN, Porcupine Tree, and ocasoinally Brian Lustmord. But upon locking-in to my 12-speed and hitting "play" on my Ipod to initiate the pre-set "Let Mortal Heroes..." playlist, I felt a chemical change take place in my body. My heart palpatations strangely began to heighten, my adrenaline level slightly rose, and I swear to god my eyes felt as if they were dialating. "This music is incredible", I said to myself. I basked for what seemed like hours in this invigorating aural steroid, through bike paths, sunset viewings, and spiritually enlightening walks. It was during this incredible time that I realised: this is no ordinary music. The sounds commited to this compact disc are near-magickal, in a way that taps into the inner-most exploratory instincts in man. Instincts that transend time, society, and acceptance. It is a recording that truly brings out the man's natural inclination towards adventure. And, as I have discovered first-hand, it is not a mere "childish fascade" put on by fantasy nerds; it is very real. It proves beyond the shadow of a doubt that the ideaologies shared by both Don Quijote and Varg Vikernes are true --reality is what one chooses to accept. Had I kept this music playing in my ears untill this time, I may very well have been in a diferent time --mentally-- right now.

Take it from a guy who's never dressed up in a wizard's robe in his life, this recording has power, power that is real. There is something so strong about this recording, that it sends goosebumps up my arms each time I re-listen it. It gets in touch with the dormant hunter-like instict that we all have inside. The empowerment and curiosity it envokes is so overpowering, it is almost scary. Listen; I dare you to take the plunge.

Really, I think the title of this review says it all. Summoning's music is an experience that can't be described, you have to hear it to understand what makes it so special. Playing this album can make even the most mundane activities feel like an epic adventure! Just listen to "Farewell" while heading home after work, and you'll know what I mean. Pick up this and "Dol Guldor".

I've been following Summoning for quite some time now, and I must say that I am a pretty big fan. Well, this album presents us with more music in the trademark Summoning style, but that's not to say that they have been repeating themselves. Far from it. First of all, the overall mood of the album is different from any of their previous releases. Yes, its still Tolkien/Middle Ages mood. Yes, it is still fantasy. But something seems to be a bit more grand, more golden, the music seems to glow with an inner radiance that I have not heard before in Summoning's music. The music itself focuses on melodies, using perhaps a bit more of a polyphonic structure than on previous releases. And these melodies...well, what did you expect from Summoning? Absolute perfection. One thing I have always loved about Summoning is the tastefullness of their music. Nothing just GLARES out at you, it is all subtle, all subdued, but still, so very uniquely powerful. The production is much clearer than on previous releases, and I think this helps quite a bit...And again, we have those tasteful programmed drums. Everything is perfect! All I have to say is...Buy this, buy this, buy this, and buy all the other Summoning releases too!

Note: Buy Lugburz last, it may not be to your liking, it is rather raw.

I've been so immensely addicted to this album since I got it. I am not really a fan of Tolkien, but that is who inspires this amazing band and gives them the medieval/fantasy setting in their music, thus their uniqueness and greatness. Even though the instruments are mostly synthesized or keyboard sounds, it doesn't matter. It's perfect like this. I'm sure you know Summoning isn't really metal; they keep delving into their own little genre-breaking dimension. Even though this album still contains some heavy guitars and mostly harsh black-metal style vocals, almost everyone would agree this is nothing even close to traditional metal. The songs are kind of slow-paced and very symphonic, but they manage to give me such an adrenaline rush sometimes without being too aggressive. Some people might think the music is a bit too repetitive, but I think that enhances the atmosphere, and also the parts are so good, you want them to be long anyway... it's the same situation as Agalloch.

This is the 4th Summoning album I bought, and is so far the most addicting. First was Dol Gildur, and I think that remains my favorite still, but this one certainly lured me in much more. Since then I've also bought Stronghold, but I've been so addicted to this I've only listened to it once so far. I still need Minus Morgul, then my collection will be complete, except for Lost Tales and demos.

The first track "New Power is Rising" is a decent-length intro that starts off with some chanting, imperial trumpets and triumphant, epic percussion. "Svuth Aman" has a great trumpet melody and some good guitar work, not much else I can say. "In the Hollow Halls Beneath the Fells" is probably my second favorite track. It has such a perfect siege of drums, sinister vocals, great keyboard melodies and guitar melodies. After about 3 and a half minutes, it gets softer with quiet trumpets and a nice keyboard melody then you hear the voice of Gandalf say "In the darkness, find me" and then the music suddenly booms back to even heavier than the first part. That phrase is repeated throughout the rest of the song which I really like. "Ashen Cold" is my favorite song on this album. What else can I say other than the melodies in it are the most memorable? The last song, "Farewell" has some really epic singing at the end, kind of choir-like and echoed, works very well and will get stuck in your head until you hear something else. Also the trumpets are great in this song.

Well, if you like symphonic/epic kind of metal, you'd probably like this, although like I said it is not too metal. I doubt people not into metal at all would be able to handle it, but it's not impossible. I hope Summoning continues to make many more great albums. Long live Summoning!

This is the fifth album for Summoning, the Austrian death-metal duo - although their music is very unique and difficult to categorize so easily. The music on each of their albums is inspired by famed author J.R.R. Tolkien; often their lyrics are literally taken from the English professor's works.

Summoning's metal leans on vocal samples, symphonic arrangements and synthesizer percussion, having parted with their drummer several albums ago. It only enhances their music. Summoning's music is medieval and symphonic-paced, setting themselves apart from most of their death-metal colleagues. They do not lean on aggression or adrenaline, nor do they crave attention by means of gross appearance or shocking lyrics. Every album and every composition breathes love for what they do, and that passion is Tolkien and music.

For many, grunting and overwhelming thundering guitars are synonymous to hiding low-quality music under much yelling and racket. Summoning might just be the band to persuade you of the opposite. Listening to their albums chronologically makes obvious they have gone through a remarkable evolutionary development, and with this album - and their previous one titled "Stronghold" - they seem to have found the boot that fits.

Let's hope they continue making music such as this, for it is top-notch.
This album is worth four stars.

Bram Janssen,
The Netherlands

Summoning have been putting out amazing work for years, eschewing the "three chords and bashing monotonous drums" aesthetic of most of the people to enter black metal post-1991. Hearkening back to the days of Emperor and Burzum and Darkthrone instead, this album uses longer melodic development to create miniature classical-ish symphonies using layers of guitar, keyboard and shredded voice. While this album captures all of the fantastic imagination and vertiginous passion of previous Summoning works, it is deftly created by those who are at the height of their ability to quickly and surely render a musical idea into music of this format. One of the best of 2002.