Style: Black metal, dungeon synth
Primary Emotions/Themes: Sitting down with the children around a fire, reading tales of legends long past
Thoughts: I was sitting in my favorite listening chair drinking a glass of my favorite whisky while listening to one of my favorite Summoning albums when it hit me. Let Mortal Heroes Sing Your Fame has such a rich history to it. It may not for everyone, but for me it represents a beautiful moment in my life - and that's what hit me. Every single record in my collection has a story behind it.
Not all of them are going to have the history to them that this one does, and they don't need to. But I can go through my collection, pull out a record and be flooded with memories of that albums history with me. I remember the first times I listened to it, road trips I've been on with the CD playing in my car, activities I've done with it on in the background, emotions that get stirred up when I listen actively. It's one of the main reasons why I love physical media so much.
The story that Summoning tells with this record is indeed strong. Both musically, thematically, and lyrically. It provides the same emotional attachments that reading my favorite books does, the same joy that I get when I watch VHS tapes from my youth, the grandeur of my imagination and the grand adventures that I would have in my mind. Summoning does all that with this record and more.
Summoning's sound is very simple. It combines repetitive black metal riffs and vocals with layer upon layer of keyboards and programmed drums. This is a formula that sounds terrible in writing, but I assure you that the end result is anything but.
The first proper song is South Away. This song starts with a basic guitar riff before the keyboards join in to create a march like cadence to the song. The drums are obviously programmed, but not in the typical black metal fashion. There is nye a blast beat to be found on this album, in fact most of the songs are "slow" by comparison to most black metal.
I need to do a quick aside here. I don't think that it's doing Summoning justice calling this black metal. This is something completely different. Sure there is black metal influence in the riffs and vocals, but this music is hardly black metal in nature. Instead of the bleak and dismal nature that is often found in the genre, Summoning is often played in a major key. Hope and joy are not strangers to this music, and while sometimes they do stray into darker territories it is hardly the main focus of the music.
South Away continues to build until everything comes together on the chorus. Hearing both Silenus and Protector scream "South Away!" gives me chills. The guitar riff that goes with it is so full and rich that those chills are only enhanced. This is what makes Summoning special, this is what brings me such joy listening to them.
The remaining six songs retain this high quality. Some of them are more subdued like In Hollow Hollow Halls Behind the Fells. This song in particular brings me back to Lord of the Rings with the sample used: "In the darkness... bind them!" The almost folk like keyboards of Ashen Cold give a wonderful contrast to the rest of the album. And who can forget the choir of clean vocals on the closer Farewell.
Let Mortal Heroes Sing Your Fame is one of the strongest, if not the best Summoning album out there. They balance the guitar with the keyboards and drums almost perfectly, something they had struggled with on previous albums. This was finally where they found that equilibrium that they had been seeking for nearly a decade. While they would go on to create more amazing albums, I still feel firmly that this is where they peaked.
Written March 31st 2024
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