Amazing record by an amazing band... Have to say I prefer it over Dol Guldur.

Me don't but very good indeed

Written by Guest on 15.10.2016 at 17:48

Written by Sulac on 08.10.2010 at 22:36

Amazing record by an amazing band... Have to say I prefer it over Dol Guldur.

I prefer this over all Summoning releases

My second favorite, but it was released back in 1995 making it the father of all summoning albums after their turn to the atmospheric approach.

Album that introduced me to the band, will always be a special album for me. Love the album art too.

The synths at the start and most of the keyboards doesn't sound much like electronic instruments and very flute/wind instrument-like or maybe they were indeed trying for a artificial orchestral sound. Really haunting and evocative at any rate and very very atmospheric too. Couldn't enjoy it first after Lugburz and it took me quite a bit of time to adjust to this less metal and more symphonic/ambient sound. But damn, this is really good. And yeah that cover is breathtaking awesome.

Album must be re recorded, better all instruments mastering. band has good idea, and ideas about music, BM theory and philosophy, but band ptrodution and all things what makes music listeble. I don't get how tapes and demos can have cult status, same whit this band

I've gone through Summoning sparingly across my life since the last decade's occasional Septembers with more patience than some dare to. Giving them lenient chances to naturally understand it, in a similar vein to how I gathered Opeth without forcing to finding out each album's individuality. I always appreciated what Summoning is as a formula to how they were exclusively made not like many others at a time when black metal would begin its experimental tirade across the second half of the '90s but only seriously latched onto a few songs (Over Old Hills about half of Stronghold, Freedom, and Caradhras) and that's not exaggerating. Now, I see them as an atmospheric entity that garnered more individuality for image and style than others would like to think that has come full circle having clones of themselves purely. With any genre that's remotely artistic, visual presentation, as well as sonic distinction, is also what separates the sheep from the wolves (i.e. Darkspace)

Realizing the context for when it was made at the time, the perspective I get is their connection to the soundtracks of games relevant as it feels made for the SNES (Final Fantasy VI, Chrono Trigger, Castlevania, Earthbound vibes) with enough variation by Summoning standards alone to maintain this interesting compared to records later that are all too similar. Also to note is the clarity of synth tones compared to the later use of slow layer adding to give an immense reverbing, tribal backdrop of distancing sounds but more on that later.
It's also refreshing to distinctly hear the early Industrial working tone come across that helped lay a foundation for a genre about to happen in similar subtle addition to The Helheim Society at the time, with Limbonic Art and Dimmu Borgir on the synth ambiance at a push and we all know what happened to them.

First of all: I fucking love this album. I really do. My favorite song on it is Morthond.

Now, I have read the lyrics here for Morthond and I've searched the internet for other variants of the lyrics, but no matter which ones I read, I simply cannot understand the chorus and since I currently don't have a copy of this album (embarrassing, I know), I have no idea if the booklet even has any lyrics at all. I've ordered a fresh copy, but it'll probably take a week until I get it.

Anyway, assuming the booklet doesn't have lyrics (since they're all taken from Tolkien anyway), I was wondering how the fuck people have been able to tell what exactly they're singing there.

For those who don't know, the lyrics are taken from Tolkien's "Song of the Mounds of Mundsburg" which was in LotR, written by some unknown poet about the siege of Gondor and the battle on the Pelennor Fields (you've all seen the movies, right? Because SPOILERS if you haven't). Here are the lyrics from the book (I highlighted the bits that are supposed to be in the song):

We heard of the horns in the hills ringing,
the swords shining in the South-kingdom,
Steeds went striding to the Stoningland
as wind in the morning. War was kindled.
There Théoden fell, Thengling mighty,
to his golden halls and green pastures
in the Northern fields never returning,
high lord of the host. Harding and Guthláf,
Dúnhere and Déorwine, doughty Grimbold,
Herefara and Herubrand, Horn and Fastred,
fought and fell there in a far country:
in the Mounds of Mundburg under mould they lie
with their league-fellows, lords of Gondor.
Neither Hirluin the Fair to the hills by the sea,
nor Forlong the old to the flowering vales
ever, to Arnach, to his own country
returned in triumph; nor the tall bowmen,
Derufin and Duilin, to their dark waters,
meres of Morthond under mountain-shadows.
Death in the morning and at day's ending
lords took and lowly. Long now they sleep
under grass in Gondor by the Great River
Grey now as tears, gleaming silver,
red then it rolled, roaring water:
foam dyed with blood flamed at sunset;
as beacons mountains burned at evening;
red fell the dew in Rammas Echor.

The verses sound like they've been changed in minor ways for the song. "War was kindled" sounds more like "war was there". "Roaring water" sounds more like "clearest water" (at least I can definitely here an "s" in there), even though that makes no sense (since it's supposed to describe the river water being red with blood after the battle). And "as beacons" (not "bacon", dammit) may have become "as flowers" or "as towers" (if you remember LotR, this might be a reference to the scene where they light the beacons in towers built on mountaintops to ask Theoden for help in the upcoming battle). Maybe someone with better hearing than me (I'm 50% impaired on both ears) can confirm or deny these claims.

Now as for the chorus... man, the motherfucking chorus. I *know* that every website claims the chorus starts with "[something-something], dark waters, [meres of?] Morthond". Are people actually *hearing* this or do they just assume that's what they're singing? Sure, the song is called "Morthond", so obviously the line with "dark waters" and "Morthond" must be in there somewhere, right?

Frankly, from what I can understand (which is not much), the first time the chorus comes on, the pacing of the words and syllables sound more like the lyrics start at "Theoden fell" and end at "in the Northern fields, never returning" (I think, not sure tho). Then there's the short instrumental bit with the keyboard coming on and the lyrics continue. Do they continue at "Harding and Guthlaf" and end at "Herufara and Herubrand" (or at "Horn and Fastred, fought and fell"; hard to say how many "ands", "ofs" and "thes" are actually being pronounced and how many of them are swallowed up in the rest of the words)? Does the second chorus then use (some of) the rest of the lyrics, including the Morthond line? Does the second chorus start at "in the mounds of Mundsburg"? No fucking clue

Sorry for this rant, but like I said, I really, really love this album and I'm particularly fond of this song, Plus I love Tolkien's Middle-Earth books.

Online lyrics also seem not to be 100% sure of the lyrics:
As winds in morning. (War was there?).
Red then it rolled [clearest?] water

Or just:
Red then it rolled... water

Written by Brutal Water on 12.02.2022 at 18:23


...

Summoning used to have all of their lyrics on their old website which is where I would always go to read them. Morthond is one of my favorites from this album too so naturally I wanted to read the lyrics there. For Minas Morgul, and I think Lugburz too, after the description of the albums they put a disclaimer that many lyrics from those albums were lost. I remember scrolling down to Morthond and seeing it say "[Lyrics Lost]" after the few sections they had and was really disappointed. Sadly that whole website has now been lost as well.

Great job trying to piece it together but even according to the band members themselves it's too hard to tell what the correct complete lyrics are.

Here's an old copy of the website with the lyrics of the album:

https://web.archive.org/web/20040617122009fw_/http://www.summoning.info/Lyrics.aspx?AlbumId=5

As for Morthond:

We heard horns in hills ringing
The swords shining in South-kingdom
Steeds went striding to the Stoningland
As winds in morning. War was kindled.

Drowning in dark waters, meres of Morthond
under mountain shadows
Death in the morining and at day's ending
Lords took and lowly. Long now they sleep.

Grey now as tears, gleaming silver,
red then it rolled roaring water
foam dyed with blood, flamed at sunset,
as bacon mountains burned at evening

Well, this is as far as I got:
(Edited it a bit by filling out some blanks with guesswork and changing my mind on a line here and there)

[verse]

We heard... horns in hills, ringing
The swords... shining in South-kingdom
Steeds... went striding to the Stoningland
As winds... in morning, war was there

[chorus]

There run dark waters... Morthond... beneath the mountain shadows
Death... in the morning... and at day's end
(?Lords took, long... they sleep now?)

Grey now... as tears, gleaming... silver, red then it rolled
Foam dyed... with blood
(?It's clearest water... that roared?)

[verse]

Grey now... as tears, gleaming silver
Red then... it rolled, clearest water
Foam dyed... with blood, flamed at a sunset
As flowers... mountains burned at evening

[chorus]

(?In the mounds of Mundberg, there... under mould they lie?)
And as flowers, mountains... burned at eve
(?Red the dew fell?)

Grey now... as tears, gleaming silver
Red then... it rolled... clearest water
Foam dyed... with blood
Blood

====
I'm actually pretty satisfied with this, even if I did have to resort to picking out two lines from the original poem that the band may or may not have forgotten to copy/paste when they initially posted the "lyrics". (Seriously, it's like squeezing a perfectly-sized penis into a perfectly-sized vagina, but wearing a condom that's three sizes too small. Then you come to realize that the condom was designed by the dad of the girl belonging to said vagina and you wonder if he's deliberately trying to make the vagina more impenetrable by suggesting this particular condom, which happens to restrict access to its deepest, innermost beauty. Why not pull the damn condom off and go all-in? In other words, why not look at the full, original poem and see if you can fill this thing out all the way? I mean, if anybody got something more accurate sounding, I'd like to hear it.)

Although overall I liked some later albums more, 'Lugburz' is one of their most amazing songs