Summoning Album: “Stronghold”

NOBODY can classify this work of beauty!

First of all, you might be wondering how long 9 songs is - 9 isn't a lot. Well, including the intro, it clocks in at 64:27 - that's incredibly long for 8 songs minus a 3 minute intro. Each track is extremely slow and what you would never expect for black metal. What is there really to say about such a CD?

Well, one of the songs is completely opera and in ALL of the songs, when the growler growls, it isn't as loud as it is in other black metal bands. Overall, this is the softest black metal band I can think of out of everything I've ever heard. This includes Samael, Rotting Christ, And Oceans, Dragon Lord, Cradle of Filth, and many others.

So how good exactly is this? To be honest with you, the first time I listened to Stronghold, I was expecting a medieval power metal sound, and the grunts surprised me so much that I just couldn't believe what I was hearing. If you want to get into black metal, this is one of many softer bands to do so with - perhaps the very first black metal band I would recommend, followed by Samael who is just plain unbelievable with their keys. That's another thing... Summoning isn't a huge fan of keys, but you won't be blown away with a blasting bass sound as with 90% of the death metal out there.

I don't really know what else to say, just that this is unlike anything I've ever heard before.

Silenius and Protector are the most underrated musicians in the black metal scene. Sure, there are a lot of keyboards and little guitars on this album, but it does not disappoint. Many of these songs take me back to the forests of old, elves dancing and singing, and dwarves digging in the mountains. "The Rotting Horse on the Deadly ground" makes me think of the great battle of Minas Tirith, winged Nazgul swooping down and taking men's lives with ease. This album deserves 4 1/2 stars, not four.

To my mind, this is more repetitive than previous attempts from Summoning, but shows the poise and refinement of "Nightshade Forests" taken to new heights of articulation. Longer songs based around melodies interacting through layers of keyboards, guitars and whisper-hissed vocals, these works emphasize a return to motifs interlocked with rhythm in such a way to create a trancelike state of both reality suspension and inner space exploration. Cosmic black metal.

I bought Minas Morgul a couple years back, and was extremely impressed with 3 or 4 songs, but felt the others were somewhat boring. I then read a review about Dol Guldur proclaiming it was more like the boring songs on MM, so I didn't get it. Recently I read multiple glowing reviews of Stronghold, and decided to take my chances after hearing a good song from it. I was amazed at how much Summoning have perfected their unique style. Somehow they managed to make every single song interesting and original, while keeping the tempos moderately slow and the song lengths rather long. I think this is due to the formula used to make the songs and the layering. The vocals are perhaps the best part of the music. They chant along (in bm voices) with the music, keeping their own rhythm, like a poem. This seems like the perfect music to tell or read a fantasy story to. I whole heartedly recommend this to all fans of Summoning's previous works.

Ah, Tolkien metal... Nothing quite like it, is there? Sweeping symphonies, programmed drum beats that sound like a full-on orchestra, and an atmosphere projecting the visions of Mordor, golden summer afternoons in Mirkwood Forest... Rivers of crystal-clear water run through the endless textures of pine trees and golden sunlight peaking through the branches as a fortress looms in the distance... Ok, do you have that mental picture? If so, then you've gotten half of the experience of Summoning's "Stronghold". All of the above imagery is explicitly displayed on the album sleeve, and inside the booklet, and the mental visions I get when listening to this are exactly of what I've described. It's epic, emotional, and moving music. Most of it is based around central keyboard melodies, arranged around sections of melancholic strings, where wonderful guitar melodies are added therein. Summoning use repitition to create an atmosphere that sucks the listener into zones of vast mountains, foggy woods... You get the picture.

Fans of older Summoning albums may not like this album because it may come off as pompous, but I think the atmosphere oozing from this album is beyond words. It leaks of melancholy, yet strikes an empowering chord with the listener. This music is perfect for reading the Tolkien books along with.

Musically, many of the songs follow the same structure with simple, melodic guitars, bombastic choruses, reverbed vocals, and melancholic keyboard arrangements, but it never stagnates, for there are many moods to be found within the music, and some songs are more medievally-influenced than others. I would reccommend this to fans of symphonic black metal, as well as fans of later Bathory, Ulver, Satyricon, and Emperor.

Standouts: Long Lost to Where No Pathway Goes, Like Some Snow-White Marble Eyes, The Rotting Horse on the Deadly Ground