Summoning

After 'Lord Andras'' previous attempt at cultivating successful black metal in the plains of the underground UK music scene resulted in a horrifically failed harvest known as Rancid Entity - it's understandable as to why he decided to quit the band as a whole. However, curiosity drew me back towards this one man band shortly after the demise of his former project, undertaking another musically adventurous series of releases under the moniker 'Lord Andras'. My personal objective with listening in on the progress of this amateur musician was, of course, to see if any improvement had been made in the transfer from Rancid Entity's live & 'studio' approach to 'Lord Andras'' individual writing, production and overall quality of music. Unfortunately, I must warn you now, there is only a minute amount.

Starting up Summoning, we're treated to a typical background of a downpour of rain - whilst a lone guitar casually strums out some notes in a not particularly mournful fashion. The peculiarly titled 'Introvocation', as it seems to be missing from the English language, starts off well - however fairly quickly fails. The environment that 'Andras' (I assume) intends to be built never really is, even when the small riff that is being played changes over to a somewhat down tempo riff - the production disallows the lower strings from being heard, the listener honestly being left to speculate the purpose of what feels like a half-finished introduction. Then, the higher notes and rain fades out quickly - killing any real reaction prompted by the guitar immediately before a sample of a wolf howling that drops off into silence once again.

Not particularly off to a great start, we get to tuck into the rest of this DIY black metal pie with a cover of Transylvania by Mütiilation and an original song by 'Lord Andras', however I must warn you, it's undercooked and reeks of failure. Cutting straight to the chase, I'll point out an outstanding issue that can be found plaguing all of the music that 'Andras' has produced: drums. The abomination of percussion that you will find on these tracks is a truly abhorrent one. From the moment they come blasting in with the snare/double bass combo on Transylvania, you know that you won't find any peace. Admittedly, it takes time to master software like Drumkit from Hell - but Andras instead decides to settle with some unknown MIDI based drumkit software. The result? Absolute agony for your eardrums. Cymbals 'ting' in blasting sections as if they belong in indie rock, crash and china cymbals sound watery and totally false, bass drums sound like someone is kicking a concrete wall - the list goes on and on with the drum issues that 'Andras' has failed to correct from Rancid Entity's work. Unless the drums sounding like they were recorded within a bin was what he was aiming for, it's hard to feel like there's any kind of base to the songs at all.

The Mütiilation cover in question comes and goes rather insignificantly, as aforementioned - the drums somewhat take the listener away from the dominion of evil that could be identified in the original recording. Bizzarely, the intro to the song has been slowed down, whilst the following riff has been sped up by 'Andras', is this some attempt at individuality? If so, it's hard to tell. Furthermore, Transylvania has been made an instrumental song, 'Andras' deciding not to include vocals in the cover for some unknown reason - once more giving the listener less to go on.

The guitar work in the song is not too bad, however bad nonetheless - the slowing down of the individual lead riff in the intro to the song allows 'Andras' to compensate in an unimpressive style with the demands of the song, another sign of the amateur and basic skills that are to be found later on in his original song. The production of the guitar work doesn't give off a particularly evil or aggressive feeling either - the rhythm at times fading into complete insignificance, suffering the same issue that can be found in the introduction: only the higher strings can be heard. 'Andras' doesn't bother to iron out any mistakes either, whether the twitching of strings at the end of riffs or at the start of the song was intended to give that 'KVLT' feel - I don't know, but it sure as hell doesn't make me feel like I'm hearing music from a vessel of the dark lord.

Bass has a peculiar existence in the realm of 'Andras'' music - it plays hide and seek with the listener. Occasionally appearing at odd times on the Mütiilation cover, initially following the main guitar riff on the original song 'Werewolf: Thy Master Awaits Thee' before vanishing like a suicidal magician who's tired of doing the same fucking trick. It doesn't add much to songs at all, particularly when 'Andras' has adopted the basic technique of merely following the guitar riffs with the bass, never extending into any musical creativity.

The 2% I've given to this release can be found in the middle of Andras' original song 'Werewolf: Thy Master Awaits Thee' for the pause from the all out blasting Gorgoroth-ripped riff to a clearly recorded acoustic-sounding two-chord pattern that plays for approximately ten seconds, before the electric guitar from the intro revisits us by copying the high notes of the chords and then the drums show up and just ruin the party for everyone. Then, the whole thing - both guitars and drums, goes out of time. This is absolutely agonising and laughable to hear. What could have had so much potential as a progressive shift in the song, or at least an opportunity for a new direction - is quickly wasted through the carelessness of production. 'Summoning' at this point is like turning up to a house party that's pretty bad, the owner of the house happening to bring out your favourite food and laying it down on the table that's right in front of you. You gaze in wonder and take a bite, only to find out that it's full of rat feces and Michael Bay screenplays - reminding you that the party is bound to be bad, no matter what you do. I suppose this two-chord acoustic moment is the surprise of the owner of the house bringing out the food, the other instruments joining in being, of course, the horrific discovery. Then, we're back to the bog standard riff that started off the song accompanied with the same blast used on the Mütiilation cover, which is sustained to the end of the song. It's hard to swallow something that's as rehashed as this.


Really, I just don't know what to say. I expected better, to be honest. And to be fair, this is better than what Rancid Entity formulated in its time as an adolescent fumble of a black metal band, however, not by much. If you fancy uninspired music, then go ahead - be my guest and pay £5 for the tape with 'personalized bloodstained note' - bear in mind that this amateur musician is under the age of 16. However, if you like a more simple life where you feel fortunate to have your sanity and a lack of frustration towards digital drum kits in general - then you're better off giving this one a miss.