Artist: Imladris
Title: Kings Of Forgotten Lore
Type: Album
Label: Digital
Imaldris is a new project from the ever restless Abghul of Ghül and once more is entrenched deep in the lore of Tolkien. It is, however, most definitely occupying a different space from that main project. How best to begin? The opening of ‘As Immortals Sing Their Name’ has lyrical and fluid harp sounds, a melody to whisk you away but as it opens out and the harsh vocals come in, with a backdrop of pure cinematic music. It is a score, a sweeping musical gesture with the rasp and snarl of black metal. There is a strange feeling that reminds me maybe of Caladan Brood, or even a tiny pinch of Druadan Forest, in the way I somehow am set down in a forest with sunlight streaming in grand rays through the boughs. But two other names also loom large. Summoning, certainly. It shares a certain DNA with the melodic and the epic and the feel, but for me the father of this sound is perhaps Howard Shore. None of this should imply being too close to either, but influences here are pure and displayed with both affection and admiration. Shore’s work on the LotR trilogy is pivotal here even in the opening song; it seeks to explore that huge sense of vision and, indeed grace that his music brought to the films, and the strength that delicacy can hold. And yet it also all holds a real feel of the true dungeon synth love and sound.
‘Oathbound’ raises the percussion higher, pushing the flowing melody skyward. The vocals are superb; harsh yes but their added echo and expression feed into the sense of age here, but also the strange sense of purity that a word, a promise holds in Middle Earth. For me in some sense it is an almost perfect reflection of how an individual act, even simply a promise, spreads out through the world on the wings of the symphonic sound to cast light in the dark places and ripples of hope. And even more curiously the harsh vocals work so whell as almost the primal whisper of power such words hold.
Ah, who knows? But if the music is grand and emotional enough to tug forth these thoughts, surely it has achieved?
‘Tinuviel’ is as sweet, beautiful and sad a piece of music as the subject would hope for. Simple it seems, but the haunting arrangement and gentle dance like interplay of the instruments belies that even as the lonely melody wanders into the distance.
‘Lord Of Dark Lore’ brings the trumpeting and the storm, those deep, rich drums and the almost chaotic vocals and up front drumming crowning its opening. ‘Summoning, but more Howard Shore’ is perhaps the perfect quote. Imperious, solemn and foreboding it is the music you hear when your approach to an ancient hold is necessary but fraught with apprehension.
‘Summoned By Wrath’ closes this fascinating album. It swirls and draws you in, the vocals at the heart and the symphonic sound the waves that pull on you. A call that cannot be ignored.
Abghul is a soul who always seems to want to explore the musical world around them. They have created black metal, dark ambient and a perfect blend of the two in their time. Here once more we have something different that surely will find fans; it is at its heart cinematic and epic, taking Howard Shore as its root and threading it through some aspects of Summoning, certainly but of Caladan Brood, maybe Druadan Forest too. But for me what this weave creates is, absolutely, the closest this excellent musician has yet come to the world of pure dungeon synth. Tolkien in its soul, expansive and expressive in its heart, intense in its musical ambition Imladris is an old world looked upon with new passion.
Gizmo
Walking The Liminal Space 