Keys of Orthanc: A Battle in the Dark Lands of the Eye... (2019)

As may be inferred, both the band name and the album title here are Tolkien references.  Orthanc is apparently the name of Saruman's black tower.  Now, I am going to explain that I had to look that up.  The album cover and title were pretty clear to me, but the band name was not.  I have never read any of Tolkien's material.  No, not even The Hobbit.  Fantasy is not really my thing.  I have read the A Song of Ice and Fire books and watched Game of Thrones, and I have seen the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies, but that is as far as I have gone.  Horror is my genre.  But metal has gotten a lot of mileage out of Tolkien's material, and this is one more to add to the list.

The music here is somewhat hard to categorize.  There are elements of black metal, and epic traditional metal interwoven with acoustic interludes and keyboard melodies.  The result is a decidedly majestic-sounding album that fits the subject matter quite well.  The closest comparison to another band that I can make is to Bal-Sagoth, but without the campfire vocals and focused moreso on the music than the story.  That is not to say the story is not important.  The band has done an impressive job of telling the story through the music. 

This is an interesting and entertaining listen.  Despite not knowing or caring all that much about the subject matter, the album itself has a lot going for it.  The songs are memorable, particularly the dichotomy between the acoustic, atmospheric interludes and the much more intense black metal sections.  This is an impressive release.