Artist: Grimdor
Title: Stone Of The Hapless
Type: EP
Label: Digital / Sokol Keep
Now this is old, I guess, but as it has had new life breathed into it via a physical release on Sokol Keep I thought I could bend my already elastic rules a little. So we’ll say it’s new, alright? We shall as usual gloss over my relative ignorance of Tolkien lore (when I was a lad, it was kind of like a Beatles / Rolling Stones thing with Tolkien / Robert E Howard…. and I was with the mighty thews I’m afraid (and also Moorcock as my uncle knew him well apparently) though of course I have read LotR though Tom Bloody Bombadill did for me on my first attempt….)
Ahem.
This is the heroic/tragic tale of Húrin’s kin. Cursed though they were though heroic too.
‘Black Storm’ opens with the thunder and the lightning, a slow piano lo-fi and teetering on the edge of needing retuning adding an age and fragility to the music. This is ripped to pieces by the superb raw black metal riffing of ‘Repulse The Orcs’. And oh my, to anyone who claims raw black metal is just bad noise, listen to the huge melodic hook here. It sings, the vocals snap and curse and snarl and its as though the melody charges through, horse galloping, sword aloft. It rises above the malignant savagery with a rousing feel, carrying us on. It is just superb, evocative and so direct it guts you.
‘Death Of Glaurung’ feels more bitter, darker. The riff is speeding, the sound rough edges like some notched blade. The vocals feel as though you’re being surrounded by a hoard. That the situation is hopeless. It is a savage turn of the music. There is a dark and rough melody over the riff but its the howling vocals that ride roughshod over it.
‘The Black Thorn Of Brethil’ is a mournful, folk and almost raw Thin Lizzy tinged guitar duet, fleeting memories perhaps…before ‘Deer’s Leap crawls into the space. Low and a little wintery, crawling Dunkelheit-like as the vocals rolls their rumbling snarl. This is a closed in world, an almost intimate moment, and it is not one that offers any hope.
‘Stone Of The Hopelss’ ends this sad tale. The wind blows, desolate and harsh. It cuts to the bone as a funereal piano melody plays. There is no hope, it has been extinguished with the last of the kin…?
And silence.
This is a short work, but it also encapsulates what can be achieved with a focused and passionate desire. Concise, not a note wasted and when you hear music like ‘Repulse The Orcs’ you cannot be still and stoic, you must give in to the chaos and ride with the music.
If like me you missed this on original release I’d say it’s pretty essential that you invest in it this time around.
Gizmo
Walking The Liminal Space 