Let Mortal Heroes Sing Your Fame

This is unbelievable, definitely the essential Summoning album. Let Mortal Heroes Sing Your Fame (Lets just abbreviate it LMHSYF), signaled a departure from the band's approach on Stronghold. The production is much-improved, and the medieval aspects take hold more than ever.

As is the typical fare with the Austrian duet, keyboards take the center stage of the sound, backed by simple-yet-effective guitar riffs and brought full circle by bombastic, programmed drumming. The vocals are right around average black metal fare, but fit the music exceptionally well, thanks mainly to great lyrical content pertaining to Middle Earth. The band also makes good use of audio samples from various Lord of The Rings ventures. The intro track, featuring the Ring inscription in black speech: "Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul...." is particularly moving. Clean vocal even rear their heads up on the final piece "Farewell" with an epic, clean-sung chorus; a melody that was stuck in my head for days.

As mentioned earlier, the keyboards are the main instrument in this group's arsenal. They use a variety of sounds, and avoid sounding cheesy or cheap "Casio, if you will" at any time. A variety of sounds are used, and are the main catalyst for driving the atmosphere forward. The guitars are buried a bit deeper in the mix, and are distinguishable by Richard Lederer's signature, reserved playing style. For being artificial, the drums are magnificent. Often reverb-heavy, they help control the tempo with a plodding, war-drum like feel to them. There are no weak tracks whatsoever; but "Runes of Power" stands out the most, with its harpsichord-driven melodies.

Fans of Summoning, or epic metal in general cannot miss this album, definitely a classic.