Thursday, September 22, 2011

Battlelore/Where The Shadows Lie/Napalm Records/2002 CD Review

Battlelore are a band from Finland that plays symphonic/atmospheric death metal with a blackened/doom edge and this is a review of their classic 2002 debut "Where The Shadows Lie" which was released by Napalm Records.

Drums range from slow to midpaced beats with some fast playing as well as the ocassional blast beat and some percussions being utilized at times, while the synths are very symphonic as well as medievil, as for the bass playing it is mostly rhythm bass that follows the riffs coming out of the guitars.

Rhythm guitars range from slow to midpaced death metal riffing that is heavily influenced by early 90's Swedish death metal with some fast riffing that has a thrash edge, while the lead guitars when they are utilized are noisy and distorted with some melodic guitar solos being utilized, as for the classical guitars they are very medievil and pagan style.

Vocals are mostly early 90's Swedish death metal style vocals with some deep growls as well as clean singing that has a gothic feel, as for the female vocals they are very gothic and operatic with a new age feel to them.

Lyrics on this album are heavily influenced by J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord Of The Ring's trilogy with attention drawn more to the pagan and magickal style of his writings while the production on this recording sounds very professional and you can hear all of the instruments that are present on this album.

In my opinion Battlelore are a very good band and while they continued to record good albums after this, I still feel that this is their best album and if you are a fan of symphonic gothic death metal you should add this album to your collection. RECOMMENDED TRACKS INCLUDE "Swordmaster" "Raging Goblin" "Fangorn" and "Khazad-dum Pt.! (Ages Of Midhril". RECOMMENDED BUY

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