Review by Felix on June 1, 2021.

Summoning are a special case. On the one hand, they deserve praise for having found a very individual style by the second album at the latest. This is especially true in view of the fact that they gained a reputation in a scene with it, although their style has little to do with metal to begin with. On the other hand, it seems to me that Summoning have also become victims of their own to a certain extent over the years. The duo settled comfortably in their once innovative corner and from then on lived happily in their own conservative world.

Now it is the misfortune of every band that they either break up or have to launch a new release every now and then (unless, of course, your name is Kiss and you realise that you can't rake in millions with records any more anyway). So Silenius Protector asked, "Do we want to break up?" He said "no" and so Let Mortal Heroes Sing Your Fate was born. Okay, maybe it was Protector who asked the question and Silenius gave the answer. Let's not bother with details. What is more important is that the 2001 work ultimately offers more of the same. Dignified keyboard carpets are rolled out, the two artists murmur, bicker and sing along, the tempo is constantly in the lower rev range and the melodies still manage to create a great atmospheric density. Unfortunately, Summoning sometimes lose sight of the right measure. The closer has good substance, strong melodies and a certain drama, but it almost suffocates on its own pathos.

If, like me, you were washed into the realm of metallic sounds forever by the first thrash metal wave, you quickly realise that Summoning don't offer anything you actually like in music: dominating guitars, energy, speed, brutality and vitality - all that is missing. All the more astonishing that I still can't escape the highlight called 'In Hollow Halls Beneath The Fells'. The relatively dark basic melody, to which soft keyboard sounds are added in a perfectly arranged way, fascinates me and the percussive elements are also used fantastically. Whenever an uneasy aura of an uncertain fate arises, Summoning have their best moments. Even without having read old Tolkien, it becomes clear that this is music from another time and another world (if we didn't know better).

Although I don't dislike any of the songs, the aforementioned 'In Hollow Halls...' remains the only piece of outstanding quality from my point of view. However, nothing falls off the bottom either. On the clean, warm and, despite the melancholy of the music, somehow elegantly produced disc there are exclusively clearly structured, slightly repetitive but only very rarely superfluous sections. In the weaker moments, it sometimes seems to me like a last music-making before going to bed ('Ashen Cold'). Nevertheless, you can do little wrong with Let Mortal Heroes... if you like fatalistic romanticism and excessive melodies which are presented by competent musicians with an affinity for opulence and bombast.

Rating: 7.4 out of 10

Review by Jack on December 6, 2001.

I believe everyone who knows something of Summoning knows they play because and for their love of one J.R.R Tolkien and his rather famous fantasy novels. Namely "Lord of the Rings". I will try not to spew forth garbage about how well Summoning faithfully incorporates the works of Tolkien into their music, because I’m pretty sure we all know they invoke that great atmosphere.

I really enjoyed listening to “Stronghold”; Summoning’s last album. Lush, big keyboard symphonies combined with angry little man vocals created quite a unique atmosphere for this black metal band showcasing a rare talent for atmosphere and creativity. There wasn’t too much wrong with “Stronghold”.

Here stands Summoning’s latest testimony; “Let Mortal Heroes Sing Your Fame”. Another fine album, everything being taken into account. Flavours that were paramount in "Stronghold" are readily seen in “Let Mortal Heroes Sing Your Fame”, and built upon to a greater extent. Which brings me to my greatest gripe with this Summoning album; the ideas are built upon, not created. Whereas “Stronghold” used some fresh material and new ideas, the material on their latest epic seems tired and drawn out. Many of the Summoning tracks can equally be interchanged between “Stronghold” and “Let Mortal Heroes Sing Your Fame”, swapping one for another with careless abandon. In my opinion change is a good thing, and Summoning perhaps should have waited a time and released both albums as a double album stifling any criticism that creativity and innovation are not used well.

However, that being said, “Let Mortal Heroes Sing Your Fame” is a solid record and invokes superb atmosphere. Big battle drums, paganistic chants and the trademark keyboard signatures are here in the hundreds and thousands. In ‘The Mountain King’s Return’ there is a passage that sees an elderly man speak of war; perhaps Gandalf, or perhaps Saruman, who knows? What is known is this is a great song and truly drives home the Summoning atmosphere, which is one that is unbridled in this day and age.

Bottom Line: If you are looking for atmosphere, look no further, but if you were hoping Summoning has perhaps broken their shackles and tracked down some new ideas then you may want to look elsewhere. Recommended though.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Originality: 6
Musicianship: 7
Atmosphere: 9
Production: 7
Overall: 7

Rating: 7.2 out of 10

Review by Chris Pratl on November 28, 2018.

From the beginning of A Transylvanian Funeral’s latest release, Gorgos Goetia, the immediacy of the black metal movement being on life support suddenly permeates my head again. It happens every time I hear the familiar strains of furious tremolo picking that makes the Carpal Tunnel surgeons rich and fat. I assign blame and copious amounts of eye rolling these days when I hear any black metal trying hard to recapture a lost art form some 20-years old. But I’ll tell you, as the CD went further on into the opening track I was much more impressed than I had been from the onset. 

First off, the one-man outfit does absolutely nothing new or innovative on the record from what you’ve already heard a million times (to be well expected), but therein lays the interesting nuances, scattered nicely between musical sermons. I dig the vocals; the harsh familiarity is nothing we all haven’t heard before, but over the swell of well-structured music throughout (albeit totally mid-to-low-fi) there is a pretty interesting collective here. There’s a certain howling and airy element to the songs, and this is particularly resounding in “Light Cast Out”, which is something straight out of the Leviathan book of malevolent tonal warfare. The guitar wailing out those lonely and forlorn notes in the mid-section, as the backing arsenal creeps up the spine and lays out the horrid design, is just the sort of encompassment that a modern CD of this music needs to hold your interest. This has to be one of the more eerie black metal tracks to pass my ears in as many months. There’s a real horror attached to the tone of the song, and it fast became one I’d consider in the darker parts of my average evening skulking ion shadows, real and imagined. 

As for the rest of the CD, the flow is pretty good, cascading back and forth between eras of old Norse/Swedish black metal and newer, expected sounds, but every now and again the proverbial wrench gets tossed into the works to send your senses into temporary overdrive as you get shaken from a near-fatal lull of ADD. The spoken word in “The Supreme Art of Transmutation” was a nice pick-up for the fans among us who tend to think ahead of the music and get bored too easily, and if that’s the case then black metal certainly isn’t for you. I can also certainly hear the typical USBM punch all over Gorgos Goetia, which is fine when that particular sound is stamped in your mental reservoir for safe keeping. I’ll further say that this music far surpasses anything currently wasting miles of tape and digital space in basements all over the planet. There is a lot going on in here that sounds disturbing, haunting and thin, just as this music calls to be. 

With the less- predictable black metal production leading the way, the album isn’t exactly a poster child for the perfect encapsulating sound, but then it wouldn’t be your father’s black metal, would it? The charm here settles in the ambience and aura stirred up within, and this CD does the trick. For the studious disciple of the black metal arts, you will find this CD somewhat familiar, yes, but wholly darkened and legitimately worthy of inclusion in your hallowed library. 

A Transylvanian Funeral picks apart the sensory equation and breaks it down into the lowest common elements: a black, surreal effort that can lead you to a few select places unknown and wildly fascinating.

Rating: 7 out of 10

(Originally written for www.metalpsalter.com)