Currently listening....

I've always been kind of jumping around in different music genres, and well, my favourite one - metal - is no exception. I like different subgenres of this totally amazing branch of music and there are times when I wish for something romantic and yet obscure, and I turn to gothic, sometimes I wish for something to kick me alive, and I go to thrash or melodic death/gothenburg and so on. Well, since it got a bit cold outside in the past few days, it was no surprise for me to crave something cold, dark and mystical - of course I'm talking about good old black metal.

What to choose.... As I was checking out my [legally bought] and alphabetized collection of bands, I got all the way to the letter S... and even skipped Satyricon, when I finally found the jewel - Summoning.

 Summoning, currently consisting of Michael Gregor - Silenius and Richard Lederer - Protector and  has been one of my favourite bands for almost a decade now, and I actually discovered them quite accidentally - I was looking around for some good gothic/darkwave when I came upon Die Verbannten Kiner Evas, a side project of Summoning with a lead singer Tania Borsky, whom I later found out collaborated with Summoning on their album Stronghold. So, the song Where Hope And Daylight Die was the first Summoning song I ever heard and I fell in love with it in a glimpse of a moment. There is no surprise I wanted more so first I checked the whole Stronghold album and later on the rest of their discography.

And of course I can't go over the fact Summoning are basing their music on no other than the great J.R..R Tolkien, probably best known for his majestic work entitled Lord Of The Rings. Tolkien's themes have influenced a lot of metal bands, [there's even a metal band called Isengard and many more, but if I start listing them, I'm going to lose my track of thoughts over Summoning] but I myself have not found any more perfect combination [Gandalf fangirl here though, if you hadn't figured that out by now] than Summoning's.

What I love about this band's music is their dark, obscure, mystical, fantastic approach to black metal, distancing it from the stereotypes of aggression, satanism, violence (again, note the word stereotypes, I however do not agree with any of those adjectives being representative for BM) with it's epic approach.

Listen to the song Morthond and you'll feel the coldness of the river. Listen to Over Old Hills and you'll feel the depression and tiredness passing over to hope and victory, just as the fellowship did over their journey. Listen to Rhün and you'll feel as if you've reached a promised land, when you just thought you may never have. Listen to Wyrmvater Glaurung and you'll feel the cold dragon's breath on your neck. Listen to Mikrwood and you'll feel as if you got lost in a deep and darkly forest. It is the atmosphere, the ambient that this music creates what makes it so special.