Battlelore: Sword's Song

CD, Napalm Records 2003

Track list: Sons of Riddermark - Sword's Song - The Mark of the Bear - Buccaneer's Inn - Attack of the Orcs - Dragonslayer - Khazad-Dûm pt 2 - Horns of Gondor - The War of Wrath - Forked Height - Starlight Kingdom - The Curse of the Kings

As you can guess from the song titles, Battlelore is heavily influenced by J.R.R. Tolkien's works. Their songs tell the tales from Lord of the Rings, which is not the most unique theme, really. However, Battlelore does it fairly well. Their heavy metal has some nice "medieval" flavour from synths and the cooperation of two vocalists, male and female, creates some nice variation. Check "Forked Height", which is perhaps the best song on the album. Still, it lacks emotion: "Attack of the Orcs" doesn't sound quite fierce, really. ***