Why don't you listen to The Curse of Fëanor from Nightfall in Middle Earth by Blind Guardian and maybe you'll feel better

My roommate and I coexist despite being hereditary enemies (Tolkien nerd and Beatles fan)

Cirkeln

Music Style: Melodic Black Metal

Country of Origin: Sweden

Years Active: 2019-Present

Current Member: Våndarr - Everything

Discography: Kingdoms That No One Remembers (2020)

Website: https://cirkeln.bandcamp.com/music and https://www.facebook.com/cirkelnband

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZBMWkZJ-1w

Monthly Spotify Listeners: ~95

My Thoughts: Really returning to the roots of this blog with this band (yay solo black metal project from Europe). I joke, but I did enjoy Cirkeln’s first full-length album Kingdoms That No One Remembers. It was a well-put together album that had this great energy running through the entire work. I’ve noticed that mixing tends to be where these types of bands tend to have issues, but the music was well mixed and there was a nice balance between the vocals and the instruments. It was also nice to listen to a black metal band with Tolkien-based lyrics that wasn’t another variation on Summoning (I like Summoning, but Tolkien metal has a lot of Summoning knock-offs). Instead, I would describe Cirkeln’s sound as more Bathory inspired, while still being it’s own thing. Cirkeln has announced that his second album A Song To Sorrow will be released soon. I will be looking forward to it.

Side note, I love the album art from Kingdoms That No One Remembers. I want this as a poster.

Witchking

Music Style: Epic Heavy Metal

Country of Origin: Poland

Years Active: 2003-2010, 2012, 2020-Present

Current Members: Mateusz Gajdzik - Guitars; Andrzej Sadowski - Guitars, Bass; Tomasz Pater - Guitars; Tomasz Twardowski - Vocals; Krzysztof Nowakowski - Drums

Discography: Witchking (2007) Hand of Justice (2008)

Tolkien Band Name Reference: The Witchking of Angmar was Lord of the Nazgûl and Sauron’s second in command during the Lord of the Rings.

Website: https://www.facebook.com/WitchkingBand/?ref=page_internal

Monthly Spotify Listeners: ~145

My Thoughts: Witchking is a solid heavy metal band. There isn’t anything in particular that stands out about their sound, but that doesn’t make them bad in any way. I enjoyed listening to them (even though Spotify seems to think that this Witcking and the WitchKing deathcore band from Georgia are the same group, which caused a bit of sonic whiplash) and they seemed to be having fun. I did enjoy a couple of their song concepts. “Awakened” is the journey of the Ring from its forging to coming to the Shire as told by the Ring, and “Betrayer” is about Boromir’s internal struggle and temptation. Overall, I would not consider Witchking a must-listen, but if you’re in the mood for some decent Tolkien-flavored heavy metal, consider checking them out.

Blog Announcement

Sorry, but there’s no new band this week, and there won’t be for a few weeks. I had top surgery this week, and I’m planning on putting this project on a brief hiatus while I recover. I hope to be back to recommending new Tolkien Metal bands in a few weeks. To tide you over until then, I have made a Spotify playlist featuring music from every band I have covered so far.

You can listen to the playlist “Tolkien Metal Highlights” at the following link: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0K04Vgo2kSIOxshrprHqBi?si=7624427aee4e4d05

Mouth of Sauron

Music Style: Technical/Brutal Death Metal

Country of Origin: United States of America

Years Active: 2016-Present

Current Members: Zachariah Mitchell - All Instruments; Elijah Cirricione - Vocals

Discography: Hearken the Echo of Music (2017)

Tolkien Band Name Reference: The Mouth of Sauron was Sauron’s herald and messenger.

Website: https://www.facebook.com/Mouthofsauronband/ and https://mouthofsauron.bandcamp.com/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSaclx3OHYiQZfq9VmOCQzg

Monthly Spotify Listeners: ~250

My Thoughts: Bit of a disclaimer, I am not very familiar with technical or brutal death metal. When I listen to death metal, I tend towards melodeath. So I have no idea if this band is a good or bad example of the genre. That being said, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed listening to them.

If you’ve followed this blog at all, you know that I love contrasting sounds, and Mouth of Sauron does this rather well. Their music is peppered with these delightful little touches that elevate it a step above standard death metal. A song might have a soft piano intro that crashes headlong into screams and growls, while a different piece will have some strings come in to break up the wall of noise. I also particularly enjoyed the outro of “Nazgul Breath” (their best song, imo), which is an electric guitar solo that is heavily inspired by “Concerning Hobbits” from the LOTR films.

The contrast is also in their lyrical choices. They move between serious and silly topics with ease. In their only full-length album, a song about Shelob and her victims leads into a song that is the conversation between Gollum and Sam about potatoes. Just the fact that someone took that conversation and made it into a metal song makes me so happy. They also dip into meta topics, like the song from their EP Berserker I, “Stop Asking Us About the Eagles”. Overall, I had fun with this band, and if you’re in the mood form something loud and fast that doesn’t take itself too seriously, I’d check them out.

Emyn Muil

Music Style: Epic Black Metal

Country of Origin: Italy

Years Active: 2012-Present

Current Member: Saverio Giove - Everything

Discography: Túrin Turambar Dagnir Glaurunga (2013) Elenion Ancalima (2017) Afar Angathfark (2020)

Tolkien Band Name Reference: Emyn Muil is the name of the rocky region where Frodo and Sam met Gollum on their quest to destroy the one ring.

Website: https://www.facebook.com/EmynMuil and https://emynmuil.bandcamp.com/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaP-duA6zy-g9TEZOTp69DA

Monthly Spotify Listeners: ~2,675

My Thoughts: Do I think Emyn Muil is a bad band? No. Do I think the band makes bad music? No. Do I think there’s anything wrong with the music from a technical level? No. Do I think this band needs to exist? No.

I’ve already discussed one band that started out sounding similar to Summoning, Avathar. However, while Avathar took heavy inspiration from Summoning, that band’s sound continued to evolve and grow into it’s own thing. Emyn Muil, on the other hand, seems to be perfectly content being a Summoning clone. The only noticeable difference to me was that Emyn Muil has weaker vocals. This puts me in a difficult spot. I like to talk about what makes each band unique, but there’s nothing unique about Emyn Muil. It’s fine to take inspiration from your favorite things, but then you need to do something with it to make it your own, and Emyn Muil doesn’t do that. The music created by this band doesn’t justify it’s existence. There is nothing special about Emyn Muil, and it copies Summoning to an uncomfortable degree. I’m sure that making this music brings Mr. Giove some amount of joy, and good for him. As for me, if I want to listen to Summoning, I’ll just go listen to Summoning.

It’s still my firm belief that the only way to adapt any first age tolkien content is with the same energy as Nightfall in Middle Earth. Over the top melodrama. Sick electric guitar riffs. Timely lightning bolts. Absolutely MASSIVE hair on EVERYONE. No more grungy desaturated fantasy we are WEAPONIZING color theory. Otherwise you’re just trying to make Game of Thrones again and entirely missing the point. Fingolfin didn’t personally challenge Satan to single combat for you to make it serious and brownish-grey.

Keys of Orthanc

Music Style: Epic/Atmospheric Black Metal, Dungeon Synth

Country of Origin: Canada

Years Active: 2018-Present

Current Members: Dorgul - All Instruments, Vocals; Harslingoth - Vocals

Discography: Dush agh Golnauk (2018) A Battle in the Dark Lands of the Eye... (2019) Unfinished Conquests (2020)* Of the Lineage of Kings (2021)

*Instrumental Album

Tolkien Band Name Reference: The Keys of Orthanc unlock the tower of Orthanc (on of the titular Two Towers) and were given to Saruman by the Steward of Gondor so he could act as Warden of the Tower on behalf of Gondor.

Website: https://www.facebook.com/keysofOrthanc/ and https://keysoforthanc.bandcamp.com/music

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChWmwkhXI_4XiuC9sEDzn5g

Monthly Spotify Listeners: ~370

My Thoughts: When I defined Tolkien Metal for this blog, I was very focused on the lyrics. That is still true, but this band shows that it is also possible to capture the essence of Tolkien in an instrumental form. While three of their four full-length albums do include songs with lyrics, one of them, Unfinished Conquests, is purely instrumental. I’m not very familiar with dungeon synth, so I can’t tell you if this is a good or bad example of the genre, but I did enjoy listening to it, especially “Never Forgotten Heroes of the Ages” which had some really nice horns. Both in this album and in their other instrumental pieces they capture the scale and emotions of Tolkien’s work.

In their pieces with lyrics, the band seems to be mostly focused on the ending of Return of the King, particularly the Battle of the Pelennor Fields and the Battle of the Black Gate. I highly recommend “Her Mighty Heart” ( Éowyn v Witch-King) and “King of the Reunited Kingdom” (Aragorn’s entire story in ~6 minutes), both from Of the Lineage of Kings. Sound-wise, this group is similar to Summoning, but they do have a broader range of vocal styles. “Her Mighty Heart” is a good example of this, including screaming harsh vocals, deep cleans, and an almost bardic recitation towards the middle of the song. I would suggest checking out both their lyrical and instrumental work.

Númenor

Music Style: Metal Archives - Epic Black Metal (early); Symphonic Black/Power Metal (later) Númenor - Epic Power Metal, Sword and Sorcery Metal

Country of Origin: Serbia

Years Active: 2004-2005 (as Franconian Frost), 2005-2009 (as Esgaroth), 2009-Present (current name)

Current Members: Despot Marko Miranović - Lead Vocals; Srđan "Sirius" Branković - Guitar, Bass; Mladen Gošić - Keyboard; Željko Jovanović - Additional Vocals; Marko Milojević - Drums

Discography: Colossal Darkness (2013) Sword and Sorcery (2015) Chronicles from the Realms Beyond (2017) Draconian Age (2021)

Tolkien Band Name Reference: Númenor was a kingdom of men on an island made by the Valar during the Second Age.

Website: https://www.facebook.com/N%C3%BAmenor-130231620372144/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/MetalSoundMagazine

Monthly Spotify Listeners: ~830

My Thoughts: I wish I had found this band earlier. They have this really energizing blend of black and power metal that makes you want to grab a sword and ride off into battle. There’s also a sense of nostalgia as even though their first full-length album was only released in 2013 (the had released singles and EPs before this), they have an 80s/90s flavor to their sound. To put it simply, this is the music playing in the background of every scene airbrushed onto the side of a van.

I enjoyed basically everything of theirs I listened to, but my favorite albums were a tie between Sword and Sorcery and Draconian Age. Sword and Sorcery shows off how well they mix all their various musical influences and I think it serves as a good intro to their sound. Draconian Age is their most recent release, and opens up ridiculously strong with a guest appearance by Hansi Kürsch of Blind Guardian on the song “Make the Stand (At the Gates of Erebor)”. And it was glorious. However, the song on that album I was not expecting, but ended up really liking, was “Hall of the Mountain King”, which is a quasi-cover of the piece of classical music of the same title by Edvard Grieg. I say quasi-cover because the band keeps the tune, but wrote their own lyrics. The albums they have already released are great, but I’m also super excited for their current project. Númenor is currently working on a Blind Guardian tribute album. As you may be aware, I’m a fan of Blind Guardian, and this album sounds like it will be a real treat.

I highly recommend this band. Their sound is a fun mix of multiple music styles and I think they deserve more fans.

Battlelore

Music Style: Epic Symphonic Metal

Country of Origin: Finland

Years Active: 1999-2011, 2016- Present

Current Members: Jyri "Moredhel" Vahvanen - Guitars; Henri Vahvanen - Drums; Maria Honkanen - Keyboards, Flute; Kaisa Jouhki - Vocals; Jussi Rautio - Guitars (lead); Timo Honkanen - Bass; Tomi Mykkänen - Vocals

Discography: ...Where the Shadows Lie (2002) Sword’s Song (2003) Third Age of the Sun (2005) Evernight (2007) The Last Alliance (2008) Doombound (2011)

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/BattleloreOfficial/videos (official) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQ8fbG8Pxzjs_ecVaetGneg (topic)

Website: http://www.battlelore.net/

Spotify Monthly Listeners: ~14,000

My Thoughts: Before going any further, I would like to state that I do not think Battlelore is a bad band, and I do not think they make bad music. I just don’t think they meshed well with my personal tastes and my expectations for the band. I fully acknowledge this is a me issue, and me not being 100% on board with a band does not mean that other people won’t enjoy them. With that disclaimer out of the way, let’s take a closer look at the band.

On paper, I should love this band. Finland is known for producing great metal bands. Additionally, even though Metal Archives claims their genre is Epic Symphonic Metal, Battlelore pulls inspiration from a variety of genres, such as folk metal, power metal, and gothic music. They are also thoroughly steeped in Tolkien’s lore, and cover some topics that aren’t common in Tolkien Metal (ex. “The Mark of The Bear” about Beorn). I know that in previous posts I have expressed my love of both female metal vocalists and playing with contrasting sounds, and this band has both. This band sounds right up my alley. So why did I struggle to listen to them?

Ultimately, for me, the issue is song pacing. And unfortunately, the root of the pacing issue is the female vocalist, Kaisa Jouhki. Whenever she has a solo, the music slows down to a crawl and any momentum the song had is gone. She kills a song’s energy and pacing to the point where a few times when I was listening, I thought I had changed songs halfway through. Additionally (and this may be a language issue) she doesn’t sound emotionally invested in anything she is singing about. Her vocals are very pretty and she’s talented, but I don’t believe she cares. I did enjoy the music around her parts, and when she was singing with a male vocalist, most of my issues with her weren’t as present.

All that being said, Battlelore is one of the more popular bands I’ve covered, so clearly people do enjoy their music. Perhaps it will eventually click for me, but for right now, I’m going to pass.

You will never hear dwarven folk metal. You will never hear elf prog rock. You will never see an orc do a drum solo. You will never see a gnome shredding on the keyboard. You will never see a goblin punk band. Despair eternally

Morguth

Music Style: Folk Metal

Country of Origin: Mexico

Years Active: 2012-Present

Current Members: Serpent Tongue - Drums; Rhenkko - Guitars (lead); Jack Hammerhead - Vocals; Ceasar - Drums (rhythm); Giil - Bass

Discography: The Third Age (2014) Super Troll Blaster (2016) The Uruk Hai (2018)

Tolkien Band Name Reference: ‘Morguth’ is a reference to Morgoth, aka Melkor, the first Dark Lord and the original evil in Arda.

Website: https://www.facebook.com/morguth/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHHphkmxVNqp3ptDPtTfg_g

Spotify Monthly Listeners: ~35

My Thoughts: I kind of want Morguth and Wind Rose to tour together. Partially because I think it would be a fun show, and partially because I think their gimmicks complement each other. While Wind Rose is very into dwarves, Morguth is into orcs and trolls. Just look up at the logo and you can see the band’s tagline: True Orkish Rock N Roll. While Morguth isn’t quite as devoted to the orcs as Wind Rose is to the dwarves (they have plenty of songs that aren’t about orcs), it’s still a favorite theme of theirs.

I greatly enjoyed listening to this band’s discography. It’s very obvious (or they were very good at faking) that they are having a good time making this music. Even when the songs are about darker subjects there’s still a sense of fun and that the band is not taking itself too seriously. My personal favorite album of theirs was The Uruk Hai, with my favorite song of that album being “Rohirrim’s Ride”. Also, while they are a folk metal band, that is a very broad subgenre, so I would say they skew more towards the Finntroll version of folk metal than the Turisas version of folk metal. If that sounds up your alley, please go show them some love.

As a final fun note, I love the album art for Super Troll Blaster.

Isn’t that just a fantastic album cover? Such a true work of art

Orkrist

Music Style: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Country of Origin: Slovakia

Years Active: 2000-Present (there were a few breaks in that time)

Current Members: Pyros - Drums, Percussion; Khayo - Guitars; Lydia - Vocals, Flute; Grom - Vocals, Keyboard

Discography: Reginae Mysterium (2002) Grond (2003) Artifacts of Life (2020)

Tolkien Band Name Reference: ‘Orkrist’ is the Slovak spelling of Orcrist. Orcrist is a sword that was forged in Gondolin in the First Age and was wielded by Thorin Oakenshield in the Third Age.

Website: https://www.facebook.com/orkristofficial/ and https://orkrist.bandcamp.com/

Spotify Monthly Listeners: ~115

My Thoughts: It’s difficult to pin down this band’s specific music style, as the genre they are aiming at seems to almost change song by song. The official sources aren’t much help either. Everyone seems to agree it’s some take on Black Metal, but more specific than that is a bit complicated. According to the band’s Facebook page, they are Atmospheric Black/Doom Metal. According to Metal Archives (where I usually pull the music style info from), they are Melodic Black/Folk/Heavy Metal. At the same time, some of their albums are on Youtube channels like Symphonic Black Metal Promotions (Orkrist does not have a channel or topic page on Youtube). And I don’t feel familiar enough with the various Black Metal subgenres to have an official guess.

Sometimes, such as in When the Autumn Comes, they sound more like power metal. Sometimes they seem to be aiming more for a black atmospheric sound, especially in their instrumental pieces. And sometimes they sound like the background music for a Ren fair (their version of “The Fall of Gil-Galad” is a good example of the last one). This isn’t a case of changing music styles over time. All of those examples are from the same album, so it’s less of an evolution and more of a mutation. None of this is a complaint, in fact I admire their versatility. I’ve found, both through this project and in my personal listening, that many bands lock themselves into just one sound, so the fact that Orkrist does try so many things is great. The transitions between styles are also fairly smooth, especially if you’re listening through an album (I imagine it wouldn’t work quite as well in a shuffled playlist).

One of the things I think they do well in their music (regardless of the specific style of the song) is the contrast between the lighter, melodic sounds, and the darker, harsher sounds. They seem to enjoy playing with that contrast, and apply it in a variety of ways. There may be melodic vocal over harsh instruments, a duet between clean and harsh vocals, or a flute solo floating above the the rest of the instruments. I personally enjoy this sort of contrast, and if you do too, I would suggest checking them out.

Much like the Blind Guardian recommendation, this is all very dependent on if you like metal, and if so, what metal you like. Tolkien is a huge inspiration for the metal genre (that’s the entire point of this blog) and that inspiration can range from “Tolkien Inspired”, like Blind Guardian, to “Tolkien Cover Band”, like Rivendell (epic black metal with folk influences).

I would recommend Rivendell as a starting place for metal bands that use Tolkien’s words as lyrics, as most (if not all) of his songs are Tolkien covers. Here is a link to the album Farewell the Last Dawn, which has a cover of “The Song of Eärendil”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qs2SSJVd88Q&t=1259s

Most of the other bands that I’ve encountered tend to mostly be Tolkien Inspired, and if they do have covers of Tolkien’s poems, it will likely be Misty Mountains or the Fall of Gil-Galad.

Do you like/recommend any of the bands that use Tolkien for lyrics. E.g. any good covers of The Song of Eärendil?

The only ones I’ve listened to on anything resembling a regular basis are Clamavi De Profundis and Blind Guardian.

Clamavi De Profundis use Tolkien’s actual words and might be one of your best bets if you’re looking for the songs from LotR set to music. Their version of the Song of Durin is simply wonderful, and they have a version of the Song of Eärendil too.

Blind Guardian … well that’s wholly dependent on whether you like metal or not. I do, to a certain extent, so I enjoy their Nightfall In Middle-Earth album, but YMMV. Though regardless of your opinion on metal, Harvest of Sorrow is a damn beautiful piece of music.

You can usually tell a lot about a person by the type of music they listen to. put your favorite playlist on shuffle and list the first ten songs!

@bliboboggins did this tag game and said they tagged anyone who wanted to do this, and I thought it might be fun to show my personal tastes vs what I listen to for this blog. So, the first 10 songs from my shuffled everyday playlist are:

1. Curse of Feanor - Blind Guardian 2. Savior - Rise Against 3. Afterlife - Unleash the Archers 4. False Walls - Unleash the Archers 5. Mirror Mirror - Blind Guardian 6. Would You Love a Monsterman - Lordi 7. The Horned Ghost and the Sorcerer - Elvenking 8. Valhalla Rising - Grand Magus 9. Norupo - Heilung 10. Sanctus Dominus - Powerwolf