SUMMONING

Tolkien-inspired Austrian black metal duo Summoning made their dedicated fanbase wait five years for a new album by the time 'Oath Bound' was released in 2006. So with new material surfacing in the form of 'Old Mornings Dawn' seven years on (for what is, ironically, their seventh album), I'd actually believed the band to be defunct, as I'm sure had many others. Not so. In fact, it's as if time has stood still for Protector and Silenius as their sonic journey has continued in the exact same stylistic vein as each of their previous Middle Earth themed opuses. And they've also returned with their trademark production (almost anachronistic in essence but, it could be argued, has become part of their style), complete with fuzzily distorted guitars; programmed drums; raspy, snarled vocals and big, sweeping, orchestrated keyboard parts all wrapped up in multi-layered instrumentations. First and foremost, the music on 'Old Mornings Dawn' oozes epic, atmospheric ambience throughout. This has always been the case with Summoning's output. Even the heavier passages of music characterised by idiomatic black metal growls and fuzzy guitars have an ethereal quality that is quite mesmeric. And although loaded with traditional black metal traits, it's as aurally serene as it's ever been - there's no misdirected and trite aggression here, nor are there barrages of cacophonic blast-beats, rather this is black metal euphony at its very best. Captivating melodies characterise the quasi-heavy ambience which add to the music's alluring nature and are almost at (effective-) odds with the snarled vocals although it's the melodically ambient essence of the instrumentations that quell the aggression so the belligerent tones of the growls actually take on a narrative quality (albeit a largely incomprehensible one). All in all, 'Old Mornings Dawn' is a mightily fine return for Summoning. Forget the work of Howard Shore, this is the true soundtrack to Middle Earth.

LABEL:

FORMAT:

Napalm Records

Album

OLD MORNINGS DAWN

Review by Mark Holmes

RUNNING TIME:

66:57

RELEASE DATE:

7th June 2013

TRACK LISTING

1) Evernight
2) Flammifer
3) Old Mornings Dawn
4) The White Tower
5) Caradhras
6) Of Pale White Morn
7) The Wandering Fire
8) Earthshine

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:

Austria

"...there's no misdirected and trite aggression here, nor are there barrages of cacophonic blast-beats, rather this is black metal euphony at its very best."