Oath Bound

Five years after releasing the absolutely amazing "Let Mortal Heroes Sing Your Fame" back in 2001, Summoning returns in 2006 with their sixth full-length album "Oath Bound". Up to this point, Summoning has been evolving their sound with every release. They had a rocky start with "Lugburz" but since that album, I have found that every full-length exceeds its predecessor in terms of quality within the musicianship as well as the overall atmosphere. Summoning has definitely crafted a unique sound within the genre of black metal. They are of course very well-known for playing keyboard-driven, epic style of black metal with an emphasis on atmosphere. This was captured using an extremely slow, crawling pace. This album follows the same formula the band had been following for 11 years at this point.

After the album's typical Summoning-style introduction "Bauglir", the first true track begins. "Across the Streaming Tide" is definitely not a deviation from the band's epic sound, nor are any of the other songs, but a few alterations have been made. One thing that is noticeable is the guitar tone. On "Stronghold", released two albums before this one, the guitar was much louder in the mix and even took precedence over the keyboards in a lot of ways. This was not the case with "Let Mortal Heroes Sing Your Fame" which followed that album. The keyboards once again took the lead, but the guitars were still fairly loud and "meaty" at times. Here, on "Oath Bound", the guitars are once again quiet in the mix, and the keyboards are even louder than any of the previous albums. The guitars also have a thinner quality to them. On the earlier-mentioned "Across the Streaming Tide", this is clear right away after the synth intro. The tone of the guitars stays the same throughout the album. This is not a big deal for Summoning, however; the keyboards are the main focus of the album as always. Because the guitars are so thin and fairly muddled down in the mix, the epic keyboards truly take over the music. Songs like "Mirdautas Vras" contain no guitars whatsoever. In contrast, songs like "Might and Glory" begin right off the bat with guitars. The synths truly radiate the whole medieval atmosphere that I feel when I watch the "Lord of the Rings" movies.

The instruments still contain a lot of reverb, and this is definitely an advantage for the sound Summoning is going for. It is never a detractor of the atmosphere and if anything, compliments it throughout the entire record. The drums are played in simple repetitive patterns which, exactly as they should, sound very heroic. These programmed drums are not meant to completely take over the music but instead work with the overall "wall of sound" effect. Aside from the guitars, you would think all of these instruments are artificial. After all, the album's main attraction is the keyboards, and the drums are definitely not provided using a real drum kit. However, within these synthesized instruments, we do finally hear a real instrument Summoning had not incorporated into their music until now: the flute. On the very last song of the album, the highly acclaimed "Land of the Dead", the flute makes up a huge part of the atmosphere. Sure, synth-flutes have been used on many songs throughout Summoning's career, but this is the first time the actual instrument shows up. A woman by the name of Julia Wukovits provides the flutes on "Land of the Dead". Aside from being the first Summoning song to contain flutes, it is also the band's longest song to date, reaching almost 13 minutes in length. This song follows in traditional Summoning style: soaring keyboards, a wall of melodic guitars, and heroic drums with a ton of reverb. Aside from the flute, however, there is another amazing element within this song that we have heard on "Farewell" from the previous album: choir singing. This is perhaps one of the most epic moments on the entire disc and truly amplify the music. Overall, "Land of the Dead" in my opinion is the band's greatest recorded song yet.

This album is without a doubt Summoning's best album up to this point in time. It would take them 7 years to come back and release "Old Mornings Dawn" in 2013, but does it hold a candle to this album? In all honesty, it does not. But that's really not a bad thing. There are no other albums in Summoning's career currently that match the magnitude of this amazing CD. So sit back, my friends, and immerse yourself in yet another classic piece of Tolkien metal: Summoning's magnum opus that is "Oath Bound"!