OATH BOUND PDF, EPUB, EBOOK

Rachel Vincent | 432 pages | 30 Apr 2013 | Harlequin Mira | 9780778314301 | English | Don Mills, Ont., United States Summoning - Oath Bound - Reviews - Encyclopaedia Metallum: The Metal Archives

What a trip! Habitat by Alvenrad. Folk-influenced heavy metal; as the title suggests, this LP is all about home, described through landscapes, literature and paintings. Kelle Surut Soi by Havukruunu. I'm so glad that i discovered this great Band. First contact was the new "Uinuos Just consequent to buy this masterpiece after another moment of glad tears in my eyes hearing the beginning of "Vainovalkeat"! Explore music. Oath Bound by Summoning. My favourite track is Might and Glory full of solemnity and echoes of an old world. Favorite track: Might and Glory. Atmospheric Black Metal Cat. Atmospheric Black Metal Cat Land of the dead could very well be the most epic track Summoning ever crafted.. Mirdautas Vras truly is epic. Cameron Higby-Naquin. Chandler Brown. Christopher Ropes. Grey Wanderer. Elessar Telcontar, Lord of Dogs. Lord Christiphus Decimus Maximus. Matthew Hartman. Iron Tarkus. Chloe the Kvlt Goddess. Edgar Schadenfreude. Koen Vingerhoets. Ellery Beard. Gobelin Chafouin. John Henry McMills Warrington. Micah Grossman. Paul Black. Tyler Goswick. Living Failures. A Suicidal Raven. Kristaps Raits. J Liu. Marcus Scott. Packard York Haynes. Josh Gregory. Purchasable with gift card. Protector Silenius Trifixion. Categories : albums Summoning band albums Napalm Records albums. Hidden categories: Articles with short description Short description is different from Wikidata Articles with hAudio microformats Album articles lacking alt text for covers. Namespaces Article Talk. Views Read Edit View history. Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file. Download as PDF Printable version. Atmospheric black metal. English , Black Speech. Lost Tales Oath Bound | Summoning

The atmosphere is foreboding and ripe, with the tribal drums and mesmerizing chants building into a monumental crescendo; and then "Across the Streaming Tide" flops out of the gates like it took a premature arrow to the knee. Even for a band like Summoning, who lives and dies by the repetitious nature of the compositions, this one is a patience-tester. The melodies hint at something grand and optimistic, yet never truly build into the epoch-making splendor they really want to embody. It certainly doesn't help that the band seesaws back and forth between two droning passages, only taking a break near the middle of the song to let the cavernous drums do their thing. Oath Bound 's excessively hazy, dour scope only serves to muddy the creative waters and blur many of these songs together. Nearly every aesthetic becomes too expected and stock, even by eclectic Summoning standards. It doesn't necessarily reek of the band phoning it in, but one can almost sense that Summoning aimed for nine minute-plus track lengths and simply looped enough melodies to reach said goal - no matter what the compositional cost. Brilliance still lurks in the shadows, as moonlight drowns out all but the brightest stars. Just like "Bauglir" before them, "Might and Glory", "Land of the Dead", and to a lesser extent "Menegroth" all deliver the band's archaic appeal in spades. The flute melodies on this one are entrancingly sublime, and even Protector's normally passive vocals contribute to the appeal. The key to enjoying Summoning vocals is not to focus on the croaking approach, or even the lyrics. The vocal patterns are the true appeal, as Protector mixes his harsh rasp with seemingly random sound effects, which eventually add another hypnotizing layer to the proceedings. The always welcome group chorus from "Farewell" makes an appearance as well; it's all here. The most impressive feather Oath Bound can stick in it's travel-worn cap is the fact that it picks up nicely as it reaches it's conclusion. Interesting that the song with the most heartwarming, affecting melodies turns out to be one of the most potent. The atmosphere on this one is so austere and solemn; you feel like you just want to give the song a hug. Four minutes longer than "Northward" or "Across the Streaming Tide", and a million times more appealing. As with all Summoning albums, critiquing the production values is a lost cause. The band certainly achieved what they set out to accomplish here, with layer upon layer of droning chords and throbbing synths. I always get a kick out of how the band uses the cheapest keyboards available, yet through some pact with unseen forces manage to hone the delivery into a very convincing aural narrative. Trying to dissect individual riffs is almost always in vain, but "Might and Glory" certainly gets cooking when it feels like it, with the particular riff right before the eight minute mark being a massive highlight. Protector has certainly carved out his own unique style, with laid-back arpeggio patterns sprinkled alongside murmuring open notes. As great as individual sections may be, Oath Bound still goes wide of the band's perceived target. The formula is clearly beginning to reach it's limits; the walls are closing in on the Austrian duo. Having to follow up a masterpiece certainly doesn't help. I honestly thought the band was finished after this one, but with Old Mornings Dawn the horn of Summoning sounds yet again in the deep. For the last time? There's an underlying reason to the fact that this album took five years to make, while previous releases took maybe two maximum- it signals a sort of drop in creativity because, well, where can you really go after you've released an album like Let Mortal Heroes Sing Your Fame? Ironically, that shit was beyond the full comprehension of mere mortals in its sublime brilliance. Oath Bound , in its careful atmosphere and guitarwork in a way could be called a somewhat botched return to form- not necessarily botched in that the result wasn't that good, botched in the sense that this album sort of tries to encapsulate the sound they had on Stronghold and Dol Guldur , to a lesser extent with a much larger soundscape, but it ends up falling just short of its goals except for a few select occasions. In general though, the riffing style is at its most consistently strong and as gooey and intricate as ever. I didn't think it was even possible to make music any more legato while still retaining such clarity in melody, but the riffs- can we even call them riffs anymore? It's really just this endless stream of notes, almost seeming linear in composition but then a familiar theme is repeated It's somewhat hale on the surface but still has a fair degree of thickness to it and it gives the sharp, yet endlessly flowing melodies a much greater depth and resonance. Their background pseudo-black-metal riffing is certainly no slouch, either; it's not quite on par with the previous album's soaring tremolos but the much more well-rounded, fuller sound in the guitars allows it to work fairly effectively. Unfortunately, the production catered to the benefit of the guitars has led to it being detrimental to most of the other elements of the music. While the guitars are at their strongest in their fluid walls of melody, the album has been mixed much more like a traditional black metal album, with the sharp guitars overriding the keyboards a majority of the time. It doesn't make for outright bad music by any means, but a good deal of what made Let Mortal Heroes Sing Your Fame so memorable was the constant dance for dominance in the song between the keyboards and guitars, and that's completely gone on Oath Bound. The actual melodies are somewhat lacking, too. They're musically sparse and thin, sounding like underdeveloped embryos of what could be awe-inspiring keyboard lines. Their weakness is somewhat alleviated by the vocals, which benefit to the cleaner production, but songs completely carried by the keyboards such as "Mirdautas Vras" rank among some of the weaker ones in Summoning's discography. This is an album that is very difficult to judge how I feel about- while there are certainly a handful of brown spots that make this fall short of some of their other works, this IS still Summoning, they have still been maturing and there was clearly a lot of attention and care put into Oath Bound , but perhaps the extensive time and care put into the album signifies that Summoning is running out of ideas, with bursts of creativity coming into the fold. In typical Summoning fashion, the closer "Land of the Dead" is worth all the hype you've heard about it. Everything that makes a great Summoning closer is there: The sappy piano line, the excessive repetition, the even cheesier flute, the chorus impossible not to sing along to I'm not going to rave on longer about this song because nothing I say will really justify the powers at work here. It's a really, really good song. I would have been perfectly content with their career ending here; this sort of shows the alpha and omega of the riffing styles they've been exploring for the past ten years and, although this album feels a bit underdeveloped and wasting some of the potential they have, they still would have gone out on a high note. Still, though, they've already proven themselves more capable than this. Something about this album feels aimless and lost- after the rush of the victory, there is the long and taxing return home, and though they still wrote some fine tunes, they didn't quite bring it home on Oath Bound. Three years earlier to this, the 2-song mini-CD 'Lost Tales' warmed the hearts of Tolkien-metal fanatics, but many feared the worst during the long years that followed Hark, it was the day of grand relief, when the follower to the previous full length album, 'Let Mortal Heroes Sing Your Fame' , was released upon this tech-ridden planet. The perfect vessel to escape the cursed human life was here. The vessel is called 'Oath Bound', Summoning's sixth opus. Those who do not know how Summoning sound like, I can tell that they perform black metal derivative music with folk music influences, almost hypnotic and definitely hymnal, usually very long songs yes, Tolkien writings ["The Hobbit", "The Lord of the Rings", "The Silmarillion" are the best known ones] can be "the bible" for some people, at least they are more credible than that mumbo-jumbo, and much more entertaining! Lyrical concept of the band is based on the writings of fantasy writer J. Tolkien as one might have noticed by now. Ambiguous electric distorted guitar is used, but not always, because it's the synthesizer work that is the back bone of Summoning remember: Hymnal! This time around, the guitar plays bigger role than on the previous album, and I really enjoy that the guitar is given more exposure again. The dark lord Morgoth created discordant music, and Summoning follow his steps. There's black metal style raspy vocals, and some spoken usually sampled from radio plays etc. Atmosphere is lifted to umpteenth level by a fantastic usage of samples. The soundscape is echoing, never in-your-face, but giving wide panoramas of stories told. The sound is pretty much organic even though samples can genuinely be something of contradictory, but believe me, when worked like this, it's a very lively sonic world the band create. I really can't imagine how a person who doesn't know the works of J. Tolkien hears Summoning, but I, a moderate fan of his writings, am easily absorbed into the sonical world of Summoning. When the first notes of 'Bauglir' chime into my ears, I am immediately taken to the Middle-earth. The lyrical content of this album is based on the stories and poems from "The Silmarillion" era which is like a history book for the folks living in the Middle-earth. Anyways, 'Bauglir', featuring threatening speech from Morgoth, perfectly sets the atmosphere for this long journey, which is both an awesome and a tedious one. A ten-minute 'Across the Streaming Tide' is genuine Summoning, which continues the flow of the music very well with its wintry feel. Orcs' march song, 'Mirdautas Vras' is the first song ever performed by the band in black language of the orcs, this also borrows the orc-horn from the movies of Peter Jackson I have to thank this MASTER of silver screen somehow, so here it goes. The atmosphere can't get any higher than during this song! The next song crystallizes in its title: 'Might and Glory'. And 'Beleriand' follows this easily by telling a story of a region by this name, also known as "land of the dead". Piano-lead 'Northward' isn't on the same quality level, even though it is far from bad. I find 'Menegroth' as one of the worst Summoning songs ever, as it runs through too well known territories and turns out to be a boring song, unlike the majority of Summoning creations. The melancholic, grand closer 'Land of the Dead' however lifts the album's quality to high level again, where it belongs to. The sound is more full and better than on early Summoning releases, which sound a bit too "midi" sometimes. The artwork is magnificent, really suitable and raises the atmosphere and perfectly suits to the package. The album features some of the greatest Summoning songs ever especially during the first half , but also a boring one which feels like it's just a filler among the greats. Anyways, 'Oath Bound' is a must for Tolkien fans, as well as those who want to find truly otherworldly metal music, that bites the spirit! After this release the founding members Silenus and Protector disappeared under the mist, rumours about a new work were spread intensively but sadly no official news appeared during a long period of time. In my opinion this decision was absolutely correct, mainly because it permited the songs to have a better balance between rawness and the atmospheric touch, which was perhaps the one little mistake of Let the heroes. The initial song called Across the Streaming Tide is a perfect example of what Summoning is, the incomparable combination of raspy vocals, tremolo picked guitars and haunting atmosphere, as in the past the production is sufficiently row but at the same time clean. Mirdautas Vas begins with a highly recognizable war march drum style, the song is leaded by trumpet sounds artificially created by programmed keys and the march of an orch army, while Silenious screams give the neccesary strenght to the song, other remarkable aspect is that it is sang in the dark language invented by Tolkien, this detail reinforces the sense of eerie atmosphere of the song. Might and Glory in another beautiful piece where the guitars recover their relevance in combination with the obiquitous keyboards, which marvellous melodies are always capable of hipnotizing the listener, drawning us into the imaginary world of the Middle Earth, other excellent arrangements as raven sounds or a solemn choir help to fill out the ensemble. Beleriand is perhaps my favourite composition of this album, with an astonishing initial epic riff accompained by a simple but haunting key melody, Silenious vocals are simple awesome and highly emotive as always, the song itself is an unstoppable ode to the ancient battles of which grandeur is indescriptible. A delicate and precious piano melody commences this majestic anthem, followed by the first time used real flute which enhances the breathtaking atmosphere of this composition. When you reach the eighth minute of this song a daunting and tremendous choir appears, its imposible not to be moved while you are listening it, especially in the last part when this beautiful choir shares the stardom with the evoking flute, simply marvellous!!. Overall the album is perfect from the very beginning to the very end, being a incredible combination of all those elements that make Summoning such a unique and marvellous band. Its extremely praiseworthy how these two musicians can create such an epic and shattering music with a simple key, guitar and drum machine, no enormous budgets or productions are needed to represent perfectly the legendary world of Tolkien. A must have for every fan of Summoning, Tolkien writings or epic soundtracks. Summoning, next to Blind Guardian, are probably the most faithful Tolkien themed metal band out there. These guys really know their stuff and include in their lyrics excerpts from some of his most obscure poems. But what I really love about this band is their absolutely brilliant ability to perfectly capture the mood of the subject matter of the lyrics, in this case having to do with Hurin and the curse on his family taken from the Silmarillion. Summoning are like few other metal bands; their music, to be blunt, is very slow and very repetitive. However, the melodies that they repeat are so well thought out and so well written that it produces a vast, deep feel to the music that's unlike any other I've heard. In combination with the plodding and heavy drums devoid of any blastbeats or double bass or even typical metal beats, murky production and non-linear songwriting, Summoning produce music that is completely worthy of the Silmarillion. There are some truly epic and not cheesy epic tracks here, with one of my favorites being Beleriand. The entire song and particularly the chorus ischilling; I'd go so far as to say that this song more or less defines what "epic" should mean. Every song here is long, slow and winding and takes its time building up and up and up, sometimes ending with a climax and sometimes ending with utter silence. The vocals fit perfectly with the music, while not in and of themselves overly amazing screeches and rasps. If there's one high point here, its the final song, Land of the Dead. This song may just be the greatest metal song ever written; without giving anything away I can say that it is by far Summonings greatest song and an absolute achievement in every way. Absolutely spellbinding in its composition of simplicity and simply one of the most brilliant songs I've ever heard. This is one of my all time favorite metal if one call really call it "metal" as there is experimentation with ambient, martial ambient, and several other genres here and in my opinion a landmark for metal as a whole. This isn't crushingly heavy, mindbogglingly technical or even all that extreme. This is the spirit of Tolkien's Middle- earth captured in musical form. This is certainly not the epitomal work of Summoning, and it may be a strange new journey full of elves, magic forests, hobbits, and warm hugs from Uncle Tolkien, but how is any of this different from their previous albums? They still dodge the major pitfalls but track a little dirt indoors with some small things. They are still awesome just a little more adult and ambient and a little more old and queer, and i don't mean queer in a "homo" way, just in a "one adult hobbit male saying 'I love you' to another adult hobbit male" kind of way. But that is why we LOVE them. Summoning just like hobbits are allowed to do this kind of thing because it is in their nature. In a point-by-point comparison this really a top-shelf album. Protector and Silenius were aiming for a transcendental romp across Arda without the gay midget kids in tow. Did they complete this? I think we know the answer here. Just two of them! And i am not afraid to say it this album is far more tolerable than most other black metal duets. Im not saying that it sounds like a lot of people drumming at once but rather a variety of kinds of drums. Who the fuck said the could put a tuba in black metal? Of course they used a freakin drum machine! But, i do admit, after fifteen years someone could have learned to play the drums to the extent that they need them. I'm no drummer but I think if I tried I could pull off what the need in a few months of practice. This brings my next point though! To everyone that whines about the recording being to roomy, misty, layered, muddled, flat, strained so on etc.? Screw you! Maybe I can agree with "strained," but "misty and roomy? I will go ahead and apologize for them not using the traditional black metal recording method: opening all the windows and door of the house while screaming from the basement at a microphone attached to a kite flying forty feet above in a thunderstorm. Whoops i'm talking about black metal! Get over yourself. Yes, there are uneventful points of the music, but i think that Summoning's music is written in the same fashion that Tolkien wrote L. Yes, it has bland parts that droll on about nothing but it makes the album one step closer to what it would be like to really be in middle earth, which I amount to a metric shit-ton of walking before a single orc shows up. Before I know the words and translations and lyrics or even the title of any song by Summoning I get a damn good idea of what they mean, and that is what music is about: the universal conveyance of emotion. To get on the subject of what they did right! First is ambiance! It is all background sleepy-time carry-you- off-to-middle-earth-time music. The second isn't that they made the plunge into the icy black waters of dork-hood That happened long before they even formed this band , and not even that they learned to survive in those lonely frozen depths by accepting it, but they released any chance of climbing out, drying off and getting laid by singing an entire song in the black speech of Mordor. Man, the Austrian chicks must love the fact that they can say "it's a good day to kill" in orcish. The samples are very tastefully done here where with most bands, samples almost seem to detract from the experience. And lastly is that metal tuba? Seriously this has to be a first. The keys are kept in check just enough, the drums huge and overblown but still helping the song along, the guitar adding in a little bit of distortion and making the whole thing less embarrassing to listen to, everything repeated a huge amount number of times but still interesting. Most of this stuff comes across as a demo quality take on Let Mortal Heroes. The tunes are, for the most part, lacking. The riffs are these somewhat boring arpeggios, the vocals still not all that amazing, and the drums pretty unoriginal and fairly stale. Things look grim; nonetheless a glimmer of hope remains. This is where all the Summoning elements come together in that elusive, otherworldly mix that few other bands can hope to achieve. An utterly amazing tune that makes this album worth owning. I only really enjoyed 20 minutes out of the 70 on offer here, so a low score would be justified. Epic is a vague word and can be used to describe a lot of metal, but Summoning have perfectly used the right ingredients to make a larger-than-life album without going over the top and becoming cheesy or generic. In fact originality is something that Summoning have become known for since their debut Lugburz. This is due to the things that fans have come to expect from the duo of Summoning such as excellent musicianship, great and somewhat unconventional vocals, and of course, music inspired primarily by the works of J. To say this album is a concept album would be misleading but the songs beautifully flow into one another, making it hard to listen to just one at a time. Samples are used but not abused and are only placed within a song when it adds to the feel Mirdautas Vras which is also apparently the only song in the world with all of the lyrics in the Black Tongue. Choirs are used in several songs but once again, only where necessary and where they will add something to the track. In fact on my personal favourite Might and Glory the choir is one of the highlights of the album and on Land of the Dead it makes a great conclusion to the CD. Needless to say these rare moments do not impair or overshadow the many more magnificent moments of the music and are soon forgotten. Keyboards are used effectively on this release and definitely do not smother the rest of the music like some other bands. Guitar is a highlight but also used minimally and only when needed. As mentioned earlier the raspy vocal shrieks seem somewhat unconventional in that they are used in a background sort of way, as if they are just another instrument being added to the sound which I found most interesting. Summoning have really created something special with Oath Bound, something that should not be overlooked or underrated. I will be the first to admit I am not fond of this type of music, it isn't the silly fantasy themes and theatrics that put me off, admittedly I do enjoy some aspects of fantasy in entertainment and literature. The problem with this type of music is that it is almost never done well. Back when I was just discovering the genre of black metal I went through myriads of this sort of music, I was willing to give almost anything a listen, be it folk, pagan, Viking or any other type of "black metal" that would rely on the imagery that was brought forth through the music with arrangements, use of various traditional instruments, certain production values and orchestration. Cameron Higby-Naquin. Chandler Brown. Christopher Ropes. Grey Wanderer. Elessar Telcontar, Lord of Dogs. Lord Christiphus Decimus Maximus. Matthew Hartman. Iron Tarkus. Chloe the Kvlt Goddess. Edgar Schadenfreude. Koen Vingerhoets. Ellery Beard. Gobelin Chafouin. John Henry McMills Warrington. Micah Grossman. Paul Black. Tyler Goswick. Living Failures. A Suicidal Raven. Kristaps Raits. J Liu. Marcus Scott. Packard York Haynes. Josh Gregory. Purchasable with gift card. Bauglir Across the Streaming Tide Mirdautas Vras Might and Glory Beleriand Northward Menegroth Land of the Dead It was he, who broke the oath which Isildur, the son of Elendil, took from the battle of Dagorlad, and thus sealed the curse which had bound him and his people to undead, bounded forever in the land of the dead beyond the Dimholt- Porte in the White Mountains. With Summoning's "Mirdautas Vras" another fragment of this unholy language appears in the mortal world:. Tags metal atmospheric black metal black metal dungeon synth folk metal viking metal Vienna. Mike Lamb go to album. On Bandcamp Radio. Drum'n'Bass pioneer Krust in conversation listen now. Oath Bound - Wikipedia

Disfruten de esta obra, sin prejuicios. Silenius: teclados y voz tracks 3, 5, 6 y 7. Era solo eso. Un saludo. No colega, eso no jejeje. Ya escuchaste su disco mas reciente? Hay Black Metal y fuera jejeje. Muy similar a lo que en este ya hay por ejemplo. Lo del Viking y el Pagan Otra exuberante pieza de sonido de estos majestuosos Summoning,sin desperdicio para el amante de este sub-genero. Es un puntazo de disco. A ver cual es el siguiente Ando indeciso. Saludos colega! Nos leemos! Las palabras no son suficientes para mostrarte mi agradecimiento por descubrirme a este grupo. Me alegra que a alguien le gustara este aporte y que descubriera a Summoning, como dije Tu ve ojeando desde el comienzo si eso. Si no te mola Burzum pasa del primero porque no es del mismo estilo aunque a mi me mola mucho. No le haga caso a este tipo que no sabe nah. Comprar Summoning - Oath Bound en Amazon. Tears and Khaos. Menudos videoclips que se gastan por dios. Oath Bound is the sixth full-length album by Summoning. Not counting certain pieces from the soundtrack of The Lord of the Rings , "Mirdautas Vras" is the first song ever to be written entirely in the Black Speech of Mordor. Being 21 seconds longer than Dol Guldur , this album was Summoning's longest release before the release of the version of Old Mornings Dawn containing bonus tracks. It also contains the band's longest song, Land of the Dead. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. For the silent film, see Oath-Bound. Retrieved June 4, Protector Silenius Trifixion. Categories : albums Summoning band albums Napalm Records albums. Hidden categories: Articles with short description Short description is different from Wikidata Articles with hAudio microformats Album articles lacking alt text for covers.

Mirdautas Vras 4. Might and Glory 5. Beleriand 6. Northward 7. Menegroth 8. Land of the Dead. No son una banda convencional, no El trabajo que hoy nos ocupa no es otro que el primero que tuve el privilegio de escuchar: el Oath Bound, no es el mejor ni por asomo de estos austriacos pero tiene su encanto. Obra maestra de Summoning, de las mejores. Disfruten de esta obra, sin prejuicios. Silenius: teclados y voz tracks 3, 5, 6 y 7. Era solo eso. Un saludo. No colega, eso no jejeje. Ya escuchaste su disco mas reciente? Echoes of Battle by Caladan Brood. The greatest atmospheric black metal album of all time. Mike Lamb. A top-tier black metal album. Intricate symbol work on the drums and an all round epic and powerful sound. Guardians by Saor. These are some pretty experienced musicians and it shows. What a trip! Habitat by Alvenrad. Folk-influenced heavy metal; as the title suggests, this LP is all about home, described through landscapes, literature and paintings. Kelle Surut Soi by Havukruunu. I'm so glad that i discovered this great Band. First contact was the new "Uinuos Just consequent to buy this masterpiece after another moment of glad tears in my eyes hearing the beginning of "Vainovalkeat"! Explore music. Oath Bound by Summoning. My favourite track is Might and Glory full of solemnity and echoes of an old world. Favorite track: Might and Glory. Atmospheric Black Metal Cat. Atmospheric Black Metal Cat Land of the dead could very well be the most epic track Summoning ever crafted.. Mirdautas Vras truly is epic. Cameron Higby-Naquin. Chandler Brown. Christopher Ropes. Grey Wanderer. Elessar Telcontar, Lord of Dogs. Ironically, that shit was beyond the full comprehension of mere mortals in its sublime brilliance. Oath Bound , in its careful atmosphere and guitarwork in a way could be called a somewhat botched return to form- not necessarily botched in that the result wasn't that good, botched in the sense that this album sort of tries to encapsulate the sound they had on Stronghold and Dol Guldur , to a lesser extent with a much larger soundscape, but it ends up falling just short of its goals except for a few select occasions. In general though, the riffing style is at its most consistently strong and as gooey and intricate as ever. I didn't think it was even possible to make music any more legato while still retaining such clarity in melody, but the riffs- can we even call them riffs anymore? It's really just this endless stream of notes, almost seeming linear in composition but then a familiar theme is repeated It's somewhat hale on the surface but still has a fair degree of thickness to it and it gives the sharp, yet endlessly flowing melodies a much greater depth and resonance. Their background pseudo- black-metal riffing is certainly no slouch, either; it's not quite on par with the previous album's soaring tremolos but the much more well-rounded, fuller sound in the guitars allows it to work fairly effectively. Unfortunately, the production catered to the benefit of the guitars has led to it being detrimental to most of the other elements of the music. While the guitars are at their strongest in their fluid walls of melody, the album has been mixed much more like a traditional black metal album, with the sharp guitars overriding the keyboards a majority of the time. It doesn't make for outright bad music by any means, but a good deal of what made Let Mortal Heroes Sing Your Fame so memorable was the constant dance for dominance in the song between the keyboards and guitars, and that's completely gone on Oath Bound. The actual melodies are somewhat lacking, too. They're musically sparse and thin, sounding like underdeveloped embryos of what could be awe-inspiring keyboard lines. Their weakness is somewhat alleviated by the vocals, which benefit to the cleaner production, but songs completely carried by the keyboards such as "Mirdautas Vras" rank among some of the weaker ones in Summoning's discography. This is an album that is very difficult to judge how I feel about- while there are certainly a handful of brown spots that make this fall short of some of their other works, this IS still Summoning, they have still been maturing and there was clearly a lot of attention and care put into Oath Bound , but perhaps the extensive time and care put into the album signifies that Summoning is running out of ideas, with bursts of creativity coming into the fold. In typical Summoning fashion, the closer "Land of the Dead" is worth all the hype you've heard about it. Everything that makes a great Summoning closer is there: The sappy piano line, the excessive repetition, the even cheesier flute, the chorus impossible not to sing along to I'm not going to rave on longer about this song because nothing I say will really justify the powers at work here. It's a really, really good song. I would have been perfectly content with their career ending here; this sort of shows the alpha and omega of the riffing styles they've been exploring for the past ten years and, although this album feels a bit underdeveloped and wasting some of the potential they have, they still would have gone out on a high note. Still, though, they've already proven themselves more capable than this. Something about this album feels aimless and lost- after the rush of the victory, there is the long and taxing return home, and though they still wrote some fine tunes, they didn't quite bring it home on Oath Bound. Three years earlier to this, the 2-song mini-CD 'Lost Tales' warmed the hearts of Tolkien-metal fanatics, but many feared the worst during the long years that followed Hark, it was the day of grand relief, when the follower to the previous full length album, 'Let Mortal Heroes Sing Your Fame' , was released upon this tech-ridden planet. The perfect vessel to escape the cursed human life was here. The vessel is called 'Oath Bound', Summoning's sixth opus. Those who do not know how Summoning sound like, I can tell that they perform black metal derivative music with folk music influences, almost hypnotic and definitely hymnal, usually very long songs yes, Tolkien writings ["The Hobbit", "The Lord of the Rings", "The Silmarillion" are the best known ones] can be "the bible" for some people, at least they are more credible than that mumbo-jumbo, and much more entertaining! Lyrical concept of the band is based on the writings of fantasy writer J. Tolkien as one might have noticed by now. Ambiguous electric distorted guitar is used, but not always, because it's the synthesizer work that is the back bone of Summoning remember: Hymnal! This time around, the guitar plays bigger role than on the previous album, and I really enjoy that the guitar is given more exposure again. The dark lord Morgoth created discordant music, and Summoning follow his steps. There's black metal style raspy vocals, and some spoken usually sampled from radio plays etc. Atmosphere is lifted to umpteenth level by a fantastic usage of samples. The soundscape is echoing, never in-your-face, but giving wide panoramas of stories told. The sound is pretty much organic even though samples can genuinely be something of contradictory, but believe me, when worked like this, it's a very lively sonic world the band create. I really can't imagine how a person who doesn't know the works of J. Tolkien hears Summoning, but I, a moderate fan of his writings, am easily absorbed into the sonical world of Summoning. When the first notes of 'Bauglir' chime into my ears, I am immediately taken to the Middle-earth. The lyrical content of this album is based on the stories and poems from "The Silmarillion" era which is like a history book for the folks living in the Middle-earth. Anyways, 'Bauglir', featuring threatening speech from Morgoth, perfectly sets the atmosphere for this long journey, which is both an awesome and a tedious one. A ten-minute 'Across the Streaming Tide' is genuine Summoning, which continues the flow of the music very well with its wintry feel. Orcs' march song, 'Mirdautas Vras' is the first song ever performed by the band in black language of the orcs, this also borrows the orc-horn from the movies of Peter Jackson I have to thank this MASTER of silver screen somehow, so here it goes. The atmosphere can't get any higher than during this song! The next song crystallizes in its title: 'Might and Glory'. And 'Beleriand' follows this easily by telling a story of a region by this name, also known as "land of the dead". Piano-lead 'Northward' isn't on the same quality level, even though it is far from bad. I find 'Menegroth' as one of the worst Summoning songs ever, as it runs through too well known territories and turns out to be a boring song, unlike the majority of Summoning creations. The melancholic, grand closer 'Land of the Dead' however lifts the album's quality to high level again, where it belongs to. The sound is more full and better than on early Summoning releases, which sound a bit too "midi" sometimes. The artwork is magnificent, really suitable and raises the atmosphere and perfectly suits to the package. The album features some of the greatest Summoning songs ever especially during the first half , but also a boring one which feels like it's just a filler among the greats. Anyways, 'Oath Bound' is a must for Tolkien fans, as well as those who want to find truly otherworldly metal music, that bites the spirit! After this release the founding members Silenus and Protector disappeared under the mist, rumours about a new work were spread intensively but sadly no official news appeared during a long period of time. In my opinion this decision was absolutely correct, mainly because it permited the songs to have a better balance between rawness and the atmospheric touch, which was perhaps the one little mistake of Let the heroes. The initial song called Across the Streaming Tide is a perfect example of what Summoning is, the incomparable combination of raspy vocals, tremolo picked guitars and haunting atmosphere, as in the past the production is sufficiently row but at the same time clean. Mirdautas Vas begins with a highly recognizable war march drum style, the song is leaded by trumpet sounds artificially created by programmed keys and the march of an orch army, while Silenious screams give the neccesary strenght to the song, other remarkable aspect is that it is sang in the dark language invented by Tolkien, this detail reinforces the sense of eerie atmosphere of the song. Might and Glory in another beautiful piece where the guitars recover their relevance in combination with the obiquitous keyboards, which marvellous melodies are always capable of hipnotizing the listener, drawning us into the imaginary world of the Middle Earth, other excellent arrangements as raven sounds or a solemn choir help to fill out the ensemble. Beleriand is perhaps my favourite composition of this album, with an astonishing initial epic riff accompained by a simple but haunting key melody, Silenious vocals are simple awesome and highly emotive as always, the song itself is an unstoppable ode to the ancient battles of which grandeur is indescriptible. A delicate and precious piano melody commences this majestic anthem, followed by the first time used real flute which enhances the breathtaking atmosphere of this composition. When you reach the eighth minute of this song a daunting and tremendous choir appears, its imposible not to be moved while you are listening it, especially in the last part when this beautiful choir shares the stardom with the evoking flute, simply marvellous!!. Overall the album is perfect from the very beginning to the very end, being a incredible combination of all those elements that make Summoning such a unique and marvellous band. Its extremely praiseworthy how these two musicians can create such an epic and shattering music with a simple key, guitar and drum machine, no enormous budgets or productions are needed to represent perfectly the legendary world of Tolkien. A must have for every fan of Summoning, Tolkien writings or epic soundtracks. Summoning, next to Blind Guardian, are probably the most faithful Tolkien themed metal band out there. These guys really know their stuff and include in their lyrics excerpts from some of his most obscure poems. But what I really love about this band is their absolutely brilliant ability to perfectly capture the mood of the subject matter of the lyrics, in this case having to do with Hurin and the curse on his family taken from the Silmarillion. Summoning are like few other metal bands; their music, to be blunt, is very slow and very repetitive. However, the melodies that they repeat are so well thought out and so well written that it produces a vast, deep feel to the music that's unlike any other I've heard. In combination with the plodding and heavy drums devoid of any blastbeats or double bass or even typical metal beats, murky production and non-linear songwriting, Summoning produce music that is completely worthy of the Silmarillion. There are some truly epic and not cheesy epic tracks here, with one of my favorites being Beleriand. The entire song and particularly the chorus ischilling; I'd go so far as to say that this song more or less defines what "epic" should mean. Every song here is long, slow and winding and takes its time building up and up and up, sometimes ending with a climax and sometimes ending with utter silence. The vocals fit perfectly with the music, while not in and of themselves overly amazing screeches and rasps. If there's one high point here, its the final song, Land of the Dead. This song may just be the greatest metal song ever written; without giving anything away I can say that it is by far Summonings greatest song and an absolute achievement in every way. Absolutely spellbinding in its composition of simplicity and simply one of the most brilliant songs I've ever heard. This is one of my all time favorite metal if one call really call it "metal" as there is experimentation with ambient, martial ambient, and several other genres here and in my opinion a landmark for metal as a whole. This isn't crushingly heavy, mindbogglingly technical or even all that extreme. This is the spirit of Tolkien's Middle- earth captured in musical form. This is certainly not the epitomal work of Summoning, and it may be a strange new journey full of elves, magic forests, hobbits, and warm hugs from Uncle Tolkien, but how is any of this different from their previous albums? They still dodge the major pitfalls but track a little dirt indoors with some small things. They are still awesome just a little more adult and ambient and a little more old and queer, and i don't mean queer in a "homo" way, just in a "one adult hobbit male saying 'I love you' to another adult hobbit male" kind of way. But that is why we LOVE them. Summoning just like hobbits are allowed to do this kind of thing because it is in their nature. In a point-by-point comparison this really a top-shelf album. Protector and Silenius were aiming for a transcendental romp across Arda without the gay midget kids in tow. Did they complete this? I think we know the answer here. Just two of them! And i am not afraid to say it this album is far more tolerable than most other black metal duets. Im not saying that it sounds like a lot of people drumming at once but rather a variety of kinds of drums. Who the fuck said the could put a tuba in black metal? Of course they used a freakin drum machine! But, i do admit, after fifteen years someone could have learned to play the drums to the extent that they need them. I'm no drummer but I think if I tried I could pull off what the need in a few months of practice. This brings my next point though! To everyone that whines about the recording being to roomy, misty, layered, muddled, flat, strained so on etc.? Screw you! Maybe I can agree with "strained," but "misty and roomy? I will go ahead and apologize for them not using the traditional black metal recording method: opening all the windows and door of the house while screaming from the basement at a microphone attached to a kite flying forty feet above in a thunderstorm. Whoops i'm talking about black metal! Get over yourself. Yes, there are uneventful points of the music, but i think that Summoning's music is written in the same fashion that Tolkien wrote L. Yes, it has bland parts that droll on about nothing but it makes the album one step closer to what it would be like to really be in middle earth, which I amount to a metric shit-ton of walking before a single orc shows up. Before I know the words and translations and lyrics or even the title of any song by Summoning I get a damn good idea of what they mean, and that is what music is about: the universal conveyance of emotion. To get on the subject of what they did right! First is ambiance! It is all background sleepy-time carry-you-off-to-middle-earth-time music. The second isn't that they made the plunge into the icy black waters of dork-hood That happened long before they even formed this band , and not even that they learned to survive in those lonely frozen depths by accepting it, but they released any chance of climbing out, drying off and getting laid by singing an entire song in the black speech of Mordor. https://files8.webydo.com/9589575/UploadedFiles/2BA015AD-8E3F-6585-65AB-D257654CBE94.pdf https://static.s123-cdn-static.com/uploads/4641368/normal_601ee8fb5a888.pdf https://static.s123-cdn-static.com/uploads/4636927/normal_601f95ade214e.pdf https://static.s123-cdn-static.com/uploads/4638538/normal_601fa956b7c83.pdf https://uploads.strikinglycdn.com/files/8018f070-097b-492e-9c21-32cb0660a1f2/volkssagen-und-marchen-aus-polen-362.pdf https://files8.webydo.com/9585883/UploadedFiles/444F4441-E508-E5AD-68A5-DB5277B66C38.pdf https://files8.webydo.com/9591632/UploadedFiles/E3584A6F-5079-7C39-AC1E-65E7647A156F.pdf https://static.s123-cdn-static.com/uploads/4636927/normal_601f95823e2f3.pdf