Tolkien metal
Well Sauron is vanquished, middle earth is safe again and Mordor has become a theme park where you can ride 'The Troll' and tube down the rapid ride on your 'One Ring'. So what is an out of work Uruk-Hai warrior to do? Simple, just hook up with an elf and some wandering minstrels and write fantasy metal about the good old days.
Battlelore, if you haven't gathered, make albums about JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings stories, which seems a self limiting thing to do to me, how many songs can you write about riding horses and walking a lot. They must sometimes have a great idea for a song about flying through space or something only to be unable to follow it through.
The first track 'House of Heroes' kicks off with huge production that builds an epic soundscape only to be hamstrung by female vocalist Kaisa Jouhki, she has such a soft powerless voice that it seems too small next to the huge bombastic music. Then Male vocalist Tomi Mykkanen piles in with his deep growling giving a total and not necessarily fitting contrast.
To be honest when I first heard this album I didn't like it, the very first track is rather off-putting, and the second, and the third. I stopped listening then and played something else, a couple of days later I stuck the cd in my car for a long journey and before I knew it, it had crept up on me and I was enjoying it, for me the album builds up and really kicks in around track five 'Into the new world' this is a bigger feeling song than what has gone before and has a more interesting structure with some great vocal melodies. Luckily this then carries on for the rest of the album.
So I played it again back to back, I was going a long way. The first song sounds ok now, and the second, and the third. Hang on this is quite good, track five comes along and it's head nodding time. I put it on again when it finished, I told you it was a long way. Now the first song is as good as the others, and the second etc.
What's my point? Well, my point is that this album may not grab you immediately but stick with it and it will begin to unfold melodies and structures, contrasts of dark and light that just aren't apparent on the first listen, an album that grows on you rather than hits straight away is probably one you'll like for longer, That's my experience anyway.
It's not without it's faults, I found the production to be a bit too big in places coming across very bass heavy which killed some of the quality and made it a bit mushy, it's also a little samey but these faults are not so bad that they kill the album.
Evernight is a worthy addition to anyone's CD library. If you like your metal with slight orchestral overtones, huge production and a soft lilting vocalist opposite a mad growling Uruk-Hai warrior. Don't be put off by the Tolkien subject matter, this is a well crafted album and I imagine they would go down very well live. Yet another winner from Finland, are they cloning them or something?
http://www.battlelore.net/