In the Land of Mordor, Where the Shadows Lie

I have read quite a bit of reviews on this album without really getting a true sense of the music being played so it wasn't on the high end of my want list. I took a trip to my local record store and they had a copy of this in the used bin for like 7 bucks and I thought, shit lets give this a go. When I got home I popped this on and had a full listen and my first first impression was that it wasn't horrible. The keys were atmospheric and well played, the guitars were a little fuzzy but had some interesting riffs. The vocals sounded a bit like Ares from old Aeternus albums which I like.

The album consists of instrumentals followed by a couple metal songs then back to instrumental etc, etc. So there are plenty of tempo and mood changes to be found so it varies things up a little bit. The intro sets the mood to this LoTR inspired album creating some dark tunes. The majority of the metal tracks follow a simple but enjoyable offering. My favorite would have to be The Lieutenant of Barad-Dur which creates the feeling of impending doom and really showcases the guitars, vocals, and keyboards combining to give a very dark atmosphere.

My only complaints I have with this album are the silly movie samples and the drum sound. I mean the use of the movie samples are few and don't really affect the music in a negative or positive way it's just kind of there. The drums though could have been recorded better cause they are so low in the mix and you can clearly tell they are not real. But they at least keep rhythm and the pace of each track. So in closing I would say this is not a Summoning clone at all but it's own entity with hardly any similarities to the latter. So check it out if you like LoTR you won't be disappointed.