Artist: Shattered Sword
Title: A Warriors Lament
Type: EP
Label: Digital
The ever creative mind behind Skyhammer once more turns to their Shattered Sword alter ego (though a new Skyhammer has also just been released which I must get to.) As my first introduction to Shattered Sword was the deeply moving Battle On The Ice EP, I had to give this a listen too…
The title track is the intro, in effeect, a short but sombre and quietly epic piece is such a thing can indeed exists, before ‘Crows Guard The Path To My Doom’ begins. It has that beautiful, ethereal, elven meets medieval flow to it. A certain graceful delicacy that still somehow conveys that loaded word ‘doom’. Legend and tales (and once upon a time music) live on this word; the predetermined fate, the prophecy and yet the hero is formed by fighting against it until that last moment, striving to do what is right knowing it leads to this end but doing that right task is still what they will do. The music takes this for me in the most subtle but suitably determined way. That silken music, the gentle voies almost lamenting. The melody rises on slow, solid steps of percussion and you know from that moment as the heroe walks towards the mist of fate that they will not turn back.
‘Tomb Of The Last Champion’ has the feel of such a hallowed place. The synth melody fills a space as though held by ancient stone walls and there is a light here though the place is a tomb. A bell tolls, funereal in tone and procession like in rhythm. There’s a whisper of some old Dead Can Dance feel, Within The Realms Of A Dying Sun era. That beautiful way to describe a hallowed place. A curious touch of almost Goblin use of organ sounds too. But there is something more for me here, there’s a feel of not just entering this place, but a task at hand and the weight of other things upon you. The hero has brought something else here and perhaps the fight is on two fronts.
But the music is so restrained and yet so epic. This is deep and this is rich and it becomes a world in this small, sombre tomb. A feeling that despair could win…
‘Light Encroaches On My Darkened Heart’ has a melody that impinges on the eerie, an almost subliminal ghost of a tune following deep in the background. It feels as though the shadows close in but as the most wondrous melody rises, light fills the music and you can feel the spirit stiffen and begin once more to glow with the light of the hero. It’s the moment of redemption in the face of doom, the calm knowledge that this is what your life has led to. It is hair raising, skin tingling moments of pure acceptance and triumph.
The journey closes, with that moment ‘The Triumph Of A Hero’. It glows with a tune that almost feels as though it wishes to already retell the tale, to thread more glory though it. It is music of praise, but also of sacrifice. It almost feels as though I am watching the words being carved into the stone of a new tomb. Words of thanks and of remembrance. But we have seen the struggle, the doubts and the bravery of facing the final truth.
Deeds live in the music, the thoughts of the hero live on in the music.
This is music of both legend and of humanity and it is a wonderful place to inhabit for a while.
Gizmo
Walking The Liminal Space 