Summoned to Be Heard: Summoning Released New Album

Death to light, to law, to love
Cursed be moon and stars and stars above
May darkness the everlasting old
Drown Manwë, Varda and the shining sun

(With Doom I Come, 2018, track 8)

Mysterious atmospheric black metal duet Summoning presented a long-awaited brand new album on January 5, 2018. “With Doom We Come” it says with its title and essence to doom the hearts of the fans to fall for this album. “Sagas and myths culled from J.R.R. Tolkien`s vast universe are the black blood that courses through Summoning’s veins, and “With Doom We Come” – the ultimate soundtrack to a fantastic journey!” states the band’s from-the-very-beginning label, Napalm Records.

Opinions, obviously, diverge, but the album is quite successful. Metal Storm online journal exposes a pretty truthful estimation written by RaduP. “This is the worst sounding Summoning album, except maybe their debut, but at least that has the excuse of being released in 1995 and being much more kvlt. This has nothing to do with how the songs are written or performed, but even though Summoning have had a worse recording, they didn’t have such awful mixing and mastering. That is “With Doom We Come”-s major crime. Also, some of the transitions from track to track are pretty off-putting. Take the production away and you have a pretty decent album”.

Silenius and Protector, the bards of the Middle-earth preserved their unique and recognizable style, saturated with synthy echoic touches, beautifully monotonous beats and marching voices disseminated in ambience, but also coined it with fresh hues of darkness from Tolkien’s world. The album is not indicating a genre with the title (doom), but it indicates the sense of obscurity, abyss, battles, stories of dragons, wolves, and kings. The hour-long work extends the tone of its’ predecessor, “Old Mornings Dawn” (2013), though the focus now slightly shifted from synths to beats, guitar, and vocals. The voice of Summoning gradually evolved from “medievalish” and black-hued “Lugburz” (1995) to warlike, warrior-spirited “Let Mortal Heroes Sing Your Fame” and sylvan-sounding, wild “Old Mornings Dawn”. Now the tale continues. All Summoning albums are ambient, hypnotizing, absorptive, a space to get lost in, they create an entire universe, a story which goes on – dividual, but still one.

“With Doom We Come” is not innovational or original in juxtaposition with older releases of Summoning, but it is meaningful, magnificent and definitely worth listening.

_________

Napalm Records (January 5, 2018). With Doom We Come. Retrieved on January 28, 2018 from: https://summoning.bandcamp.com/album/with-doom-we-come

RaduP (January 13, 2018). Summoning – With Doom We Come Review. Retrieved on January 28, 2018 from: http://www.metalstorm.net/pub/review.php?review_id=14412

Silenius, Protector (2018). With Doom I Come [Recorded by Summoning]. With Doom We Come. Austria: Napalm Records.