Band: Battlelore
Title: Doombound
Label: Napalm Records
Distribution: Rough Trade Benelux.
Release date: January 28th 2011
Review: CD

First of all: ‘Fantasy Metal’… What a silly nonsense. Some examples: a few times I’ve seen Summoning being classified as Fantasy Metal on some online order list, and more than once, Dagorlad have been defined as Fantasy Metal as well. But musically, these projects, and Finnish band Battlelore too, do differ intensively from each other, don’t they, so what’s the weird idea behind such a moniker? Besides, is it because of the lyrics? Aren’t there hundreds of bands and projects that come with fantastic lyrics? War and Battle Metal, Black and Death Metal, Heavy and Power Metal, each of these genres have more than just a handful of examples to mention, as everybody knows. And being inspired by the (sublime) works of Tolkien, does this automatically implement ‘Fantasy’? Isn’t that too easy?
More irony: sometimes people do use the terminology ‘Tolkien Metal’ to refer to Tolkien-inspired Metal bands – isn’t that funny?...
No, Battlelore need to be ‘labelled’ otherwise.

Battlelore were founded in 1999 by Jyri ‘Moredhel’ Vahvanen (formerly also involved with Horna and Khert-Neter) and Miika Kokkola (who left the band in 2005; formerly in Dead Of Night as well). That very same year, a first demo, Warrior’s Tale, was recorded, a second one (Dark Fantasy) in 2000, and here Austrian label Napalm Records shows up. It results in the release of a handful of acceptable full lengths (… Where The Shadows Lie, Sword’s Song, Third Age Of The Sun, Evernight, and The Last Alliance) during the 2000’s, all highly acclaimed and well appreciated, by both the (international) press and audience.
Like they did with their former album, the band had chosen to record this new album again at Sound Supreme Studio with Janne Saksa (think Olympos Mons, Total Devastation, myGrain etc), and the mixing and mastering duties were done again by ‘legendary’ Dan Swanö. This explains the very professional and powerful sound of Doombound.

This time, the album’s concept is based on The Children Of Húrin, a posthumously released Tolkien epos (2007, if I’m not mistaken) – based on notes and unfinished writings by the Master himself, and finished by his son Christopher. More specific, Doombound tells about (anti-) hero / warrior Túrin Turambar, a Man from Hador, son of Húrin Thalion, who lived during the First Era on Middle Earth and especially known from killing the malicious fire-dragon Glaurung. The character is known from an episode in The Silmarillion as well, for the interested ones.

Doombound opens with Bloodstained, a rather slow and Gothic-sounding piece with many interesting elements. The vocals are varying as usual. Tomi Mykkänen’s (Evemaster, ex-Mortal God, Elephant Bell) vocals (from spoken words up to grunts) have grown since he joined Battlelore’s ranks in 2004, and it stands in perfect equilibrium with the warm and elfish voice of Kaisa Jouhki. The song is especially keyboard-driven, yet with an excellent instrumentation. And this approach goes on for fifty three minutes. Songs like Iron Of Death, Last Of The Lords and Kärmessutra bring tragic melodies with orchestral passages, several heavy outbursts, and traditional riffs. A few times, the band implements elements from Folk (the use of flutes, for example, might sound folksy) and Epic Doom, and within the heavier parts my mind dwells to Amon Amarth / Unleashed- (like the brutal hymn The Olden Gods or the grand finale on Bow And Helm) or Kampfar / Bathory-supremacy (Men As Wolves). In contradiction to these more intensified and pounding moments, some parts are more integer – listen for example to the floating outro Kielo or the catchy neo-ballad Enchanted, with acoustics and a sweet melody. Too sweet, and therefore the only song I do not like – but that isn’t but my personal opinion, of course.
The sextet performs with lot of variety, yet at the same time with a specific over-covering atmosphere, the latter being both melancholic / tragic and heroic / epic. And the positive evolution on most aspects makes this sixth Battlelore-album the strongest to date.

The album will appear in a limited version, which includes a bonus-DVD with live material, behind the scenes-footage, and video clips.

Well, I sort of feel obliged to classify Battlelore’s Epic Symphonic Metal (see introduction). Well, I just did… Other suggestions?

81/100

Ivan Tibos.