Bunch of members of various races (elves, a half-orc, an ent, humans and an Uruk-hai) who gathered together, known as Battlelore, have released their 2nd full-length album. After reading raving reviews already for the debut '...Where the Shadows Lie' (2002), it was, once again, my own bloody mistake, that I discover another fine band a bit late. No-one has enough time to check out all those metal bands nowadays. Would be stupid even to try to, though.

As you might have guessed from those races already, Battlelore perform fantasy metal based on the J.R.R. Tolkien bibliography. I thought I was getting folky viking metal when I ordered this, but this managed to surprise me well. There's folky melodies conjured by half-elf synth player/flutist Maria, but actually Battlelore's metal sound very modern. Maybe some synths have 1980s pop in them? I mean these songs are incredibly catchy, even though not very varying at first few listening sessions. Of course the smell of Bathory does reek somewhere back there, as does Nordic feel in general. Straightforward-ish arrangements might hide some of the grandeur of the compositions at first. Atmospheres are done within quite a small space, but likes of 'Buccaneers Inn' happens to transmit the feelings of "dancing and drinking in Buccaneers Inn and later tonight it's time for sin", 'Attack of the Orcs' sounds like "they shall raze your villages, destroy your camps, rape your cattle and slaughter your wives" (from an orc's point of view, right!?) and 'Forked Height' brings cold with "walls of Isengard, face the northern winds". This isn't soundtrack-ish, though, at least not as wholly, but there's some elements of it, just like Nightwish do. The song structures are quite simple, but well thought out. There's an irresistible drive through the album I can't resist (well, atmospheric instrumental 'Horns of Gondor' is the only divergency). Music on 'Sword's Song' simply flows.

This is not an easy album, not even close! Similarity of the material is one of the obstacles for a listener to surpass. After many listenings, most of them with headset and while doing something with my computer, the album slowly began to show its mightiness (after a couple of listenings, my only idea was, that this was quite close to Theatre Of Tragedy's 'Aégis' from 1998 = catchiness, "pop"-influences and what seems like simplicity). But when I gave time for it, read lyrics while listening and doing nothing else, it all came clear. It is a powerful entity and clearly not too similar, since the songs have their own atmospheres and feelings. Battlelore's metal is a combination of many things, such as gothic, heavy, viking, death and others metal styles, but also other music styles, such as aforementioned pop and movie scores. An impossible task to list every thing found on 'Sword's Song'. I just tell you, that Battlelore have created something highly original. It needs to be heard.

Battlelore are a 7-piece band. Every person takes a role of his/her character, also in pictures. This feels very balanced, meaning every person has enough space to give their contribution for the album. Music is well performed, without any showing (e.g. there's no guitar solos, but more like another melodies). Production-wise, this sound modern, but sometimes I think a bit too modern actually. Well, rawer sound could ruin something, anyways. Vocals are varying, because there's so much different characters and races played on ten songs. From haunting, angelic female vocals of Kaisa Jouhki to bear-ish growls à la Gorefest's Jan-Chris De Koeyer and clean singing by three men (two of them guests, Patrik Mennander is Battlelore member). Every voice is great and present different sides to this. Whole package looks great and whole, too, since the band is highly visual.

This is amazing, original 43 minutes of fantasy metal. Battlelore are no Summoning, Blind Guardian nor any other Tolkien-inspired band. You should remember the name now. Digipak comes with a bonus song 'Curse of the Kings', by the way.

Rating: 8½ (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
09/24/2003 21:55