Line #46 Music/Summoning


1	[[quoteright:371:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Summoning.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:371:Mirdautas vras!]]
3
4
5	->''I have...I have been a sword in the hand and''
6	->''I have been a shield in the fight and''
7	->''I have been the string of a harp and''
8	->''I can shift my shape like a god!''
9	->'''Farewell'''
10
11	Summoning was formed in 1993 by drinking buddies Richard Lederer, Michael Gregor and Alexander Trondl, who [[YouAllMeetInAnInn met in a pub]] in Austria. They secured a deal with Napalm Records in 1995 and released their debut ''Lugburz'', a traditional {{Black Metal}} album that was quite different from their later projects.
12
13	Shortly after recording ''Lugburz'', Trondl was kicked from the band for being "a commercial-thinking asshole". Lederer and Gregor continued as a duo, and instead of getting a new drummer changed to keyboard percussion to produce a more epic, atmospheric style. They combined this with low-key guitars and multi-layered synthesizer and keyboard melodies mimicking a full orchestra, while retaining the growling vocals to produce what would become the trademark Summoning sound. Most of their lyrics were inspired by the works of Creator/JRRTolkien, with some songs taking lyrics straight from poems/songs in Literature/{{The Hobbit}} and Literature/{{The Lord of the Rings}}. Some of the songs on ''Let Mortal Heroes Sing Your Fame'' are also inspired by the works of Creator/MichaelMoorcock.
14
15	They released five more albums in this style: ''Minas Morgul''; ''Dol Guldur''; ''Stronghold'', which put more emphasis on more complex and melodic guitar work; ''Let Mortal Heroes Sing Your Fame'', the first album to feature clean vocal sections; and ''Oath Bound'', characterised by relaxed, arpeggio-style guitars.
16
17	Since ''Oath Bound'', both members have taken time out to work on other projects, with Lederer working on music for a full-length release while waiting for Gregor to finish recording the next album for his solo band Kreuzweg Ost.
18
19	They announced a comeback in 2012, and the new album ''Old Mornings Dawn'' was finally released in summer 2013. The band's eighth album will reportedly be released in 2016, but was later on changed to 2018, to much fanfare.
20
21
22	Their current line-up is:
23	* Richard "Protector" Lederer
24	* Michael "Silenius" Gregor
25
26	Former members and session include:
27	* Alexander "Trifixion" Trondl - Drums
28	* Ray "Pazazu" Wells - Guest vocals on ''Lugburz''
29	* Tania Borsky - Guest vocals on ''Stronghold''
30	* David Seys - Guest narration on ''Old Mornings Dawn''
31	* Erika Szücs - Guest vocals on ''Old Mornings Dawn'' and ''With Doom We Come''
32
33	Their discography is:
34	* ''Lugburz'' (1995)
35	* ''Minas Morgul'' (1995)
36	* ''Dol Guldur'' (1996)
37	* ''Stronghold'' (1999)
38	* ''Let Mortal Heroes Sing Your Fame'' (2001)
39	* ''Oath Bound'' (2006)
40	* ''Old Mornings Dawn'' (2013)
41	* ''With Doom We Come'' (2018)
42
43
44	----
45	'''Summoning and their music provide examples of:'''
46
47	* AlbumIntroTrack: Basically all albums except for ''With Doom We Come'' have them.
48	* BadassBoast: "Farewell"
49	* BilingualBonus:
50	** Usually from Tolkien's {{Fictionary}}.
51	** Especially "Mirdautas Vras", which is [[https://web.archive.org/web/20080203125738/http://www.lyricstime.com/summoning-mirdautas-vras-lyrics.html just as threatening as it sounds]] once translated.
52	* BlackSpeech: "Mirdautas Vras"
53	* ConceptAlbum: All of them.
54	* EchoingAcoustics: Couldn't really be much more [[BuffySpeak echo-y]].
55	* EndingTheme: "Farewell" was used for the closing credits of ''Film/{{Damnatus}}''.
56	* EpicRocking: It's rare for a Summoning song to ''not'' be an example of this trope (they are referred to as "epic black metal", after all). The longest as of 2018 is "Land of the Dead", which runs for 12:50. Over the eight-minute mark:
57	** ''Minas Morgul'': "The Passing of the Grey Company" (9:16), "Marching Homewards" (8:11) "Dor Daedeloth" (10:16)
58	** ''Dol Goldur'': "Nightshade Forests" (10:49), "Elfstone" (10:51), "Khazad-dûm" (10:58), "Kôr" (11:00), "Unto a Long Glory..." (9:37), "Over Old Hills" (8:58)
59	** ''Nightshade Forests'': "Mirkwood" (9:45), "Kortirion Among the Trees" (8:58)
60	** ''Stronghold'': "The Rotting Horse on the Deadly Ground" (8:26), "A Distant Flame Before the Sun" (9:43)
61	** ''Let Mortal Heroes Sing Your Fame'': "In Hollow Halls Beneath the Fells" (8:57), "The Mountain King's Return" (8:53), "Farewell" (9:19)
62	** ''Lost Tales'': "Arcenstone" (9:17)
63	** ''Oath Bound'': "Across the Streaming Tide" (10:20), "Mirdautas Vras" (8:14), "Might and Glory" (8:26), "Beleriand" (9:28), "Northward" (8:40), "Menegroth" (8:12), "Land of the Dead" (12:50) (special mention for every song except the intro being at least eight minutes long)
64	** ''Old Mornings Dawn'': "Old Mornings Dawn" (9:31), "The White Tower" (9:36), "Caradhras" (9:32), "Of Pale White Morns and Darkened Eves" (8:23), "The Wandering Fire" (8:03), "Earthshine" (9:33) (this one isn't far behind ''Oath Bound'', as if the intro "Evernight" were combined with "Flammifer", all of these would be at least eight minutes long, too[[note]]Excluding bonus tracks, anyway, but "With Fire and Sword" is still nearly seven minutes long. Only "The Darkening of Valinor", at a mere four minutes long, doesn't qualify[[/note]])
65	** ''With Doom We Come'': "Silvertine" (8:54), "Carcharoth" (9:20), "Mirklands" (11:01), "With Doom I Come" (11:19)
66	* {{Fanfare}}: "Mirdautas Vras" is a rare example of a '''villainous''' fanfare, and qualifies as SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic. Listen [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5IMCH7INcE here]].
67	** "Bauglir" might count as a fanfare as well.
68	* {{Garfunkel}}: Averted, as both Lederer and Gregor provide the vocals for different songs.
69	* GenreBusting: After Lugburz they went from {{Black Metal}} to...atmospheric metal? Epic metal? Ambient metal? Summoning still classify themselves as "black metal" and most people go with it just to simplify things.
70	* GratuitousLatin: "Flammifer" literally means ''flame-bearing'' (derived from the root ''flamma'', ''flame'', and the suffix ''-fer'', ''bearing''), though it may also be translated as ''burning'' or ''fiery''. It is, of course, taken from Tolkien; it is a term Bilbo Baggins used to describe Eärendil the Mariner. Tolkien may have employed it to avoid using the more familiar term ''lucifer'', which in fact literally translates as ''light-bearing'' (and was originally associated with the planet Venus and the Morning and Evening Stars, as Eärendil himself is associated with the latter two).
71	** Also the track name "With Fire and Sword" [[PlayingWithATrope plays with the trope]]. It's translated directly from an extremely common Latin phrase describing scorched-earth tactics in warfare. There are several attested variants, including ''igni ferroque'', ''ferro ignique'', ''ferro flammaque'', ''ferro atque igni'', ''igni atque ferro'', ''ferro atque flamma'', ''flamma atque ferro''... you get the idea.
72	* GrimUpNorth
73	* HeavyMithril
74	* IAmSong: "Farewell"
75	* IndecipherableLyrics: Most of the tracks from ''Lugburz'' qualify.
76	* InstrumentalThemeTune: Each album traditionally starts with a short instrumental piece. Some other songs are instrumentals as well.
77	* IWillWaitForYou: "Where Hope and Daylight Die"
78	* LongestSongGoesLast: More often than not on their full-length albums (excluding bonus tracks, anyway).
79	** ''Minas Morgul'' ends with "Dor Daedeloth" (10:16).
80	** ''Stronghold'' ends with "A Distant Flame Before the Sun" (9:43).
81	** ''Let Mortal Heroes Sing Your Fame'' ends with "Farewell" (9:19).
82	** ''Oath Bound'' ends with "Land of the Dead" (12:50).
83	** ''Old Mornings Dawn'' averts this trope, but only barely, and it bears mention how close in length its four longest tracks are: its final song, "Earthshine" (9:33), is two seconds shorter than "The White Tower" (9:35); two seconds ''longer'' than "Caradhras" (9:31); and ''four'' seconds longer than the title track (9:29).
84	** ''With Doom We Come'' ends with "With Doom I Come" (11:17).
85	* LoopedLyrics
86	* LoudnessWar: The [=CDs=] from ''Stronghold'' onward were clipped. Vinyl editions, such as ''Old Mornings Dawn'', often got separate masters that were free from this problem.
87	* LyricalDissonance: They always sing in growling vocals, even when the lyrics come from one of Tolkien's more upbeat compositions. This occasionally leads to {{The Cover Changes The Meaning}} (see below).
88	* NewSoundAlbum:
89	** Closer to a full-blown {{Genre Shift}}, from ''Minas Morgul'' onward (as explained above).
90	** A [[DownplayedTrope less pronounced case]] with ''Old Mornings Dawn'', where their sound somehow got even lusher and a bit more more medieval. ''With Doom We Come'' carries on in a similar style.
91	* ShaggyDogStory: "Northward"
92	* ShoutOut: Most of their lyrics are inspired by Tolkien. They've also adapted lyrics from other authors, such as Creator/WilliamWordsworth and Sir Walter Scott, and some lyrics on ''Let Mortal Heroes Sing Your Fame'' were inspired by Creator/MichaelMoorcock's Eternal Champion. ''With Doom We Come'' adapts poems by Edgar Alan Poe and Ralph Emerson.
93	* SopranoAndGravel: Their vocals are mostly the typical Type 3 MetalScream expected from BlackMetal, but they use clean choirs on some albums (mostly performed entirely by Protector and Silenius) as well. A good example is the title track of ''Old Mornings Dawn''. Additionally, one song, "Where Hope and Daylight Die", contains entirely clean singing from Protector's ex-girlfriend, Tania Borsky.
94	** Then there are songs that somehow combine Soprano and Gravel into a ''single vocal line'', as on tracks like "Long Lost to Where No Pathway Goes" and "Earthshine". This could be thought of as an unusual, almost unique combination of Type 3 and Type 4, in which the phlegmy rasp found in most black metal is given melody.
95	* SpokenWordInMusic
96	* TheCoverChangesTheMeaning: "The Shadow Lies Frozen on the Hills". By taking the more sinister verses as lyrics and adding {{Psycho Strings}}, they turn a hobbit walking song into {{Nightmare Fuel}}.
97	* TheSongBeforeTheStorm
98	* ThemeNaming: Their first four albums are all named after towers from [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Middle Earth]]. Also, every album cover except "Mortal Heroes" has a picture of a mountain on it.
99	* ThoseTwoGuys: Given that they've been a two-man band since their second album.
100	* TitleOfTheDead: "Land of the Dead", the final song of ''Oath Bound''.
101	* VillainSong: "Mirdautas Vras" is meant to be narrated by [[EvilOverlord Sauron]].
102	** As is "Bauglir", by Morgoth.
103	* VoiceOfTheLegion: The choir segments in "Farewell", "Might and Glory" and "Land of the Dead" are actually sung by just Lederer and Gregor, with a reverberation effect.

Context Music / Summoning