BATTLELORE „Third age of the sun”

Music: Fantasy Metal (can you really put Battlelore into a spezial genre?)
Duration: 13 songs – 49:52 minutes


Good songs: Storm of the blades, Ghan of the woods, Elves of Luva. Hm, but somehow all songs…
Website: www.battlelore.net
www.napalmrecords.com
Contact: contact@battlelore.net

And still the battle about Middleearth is not fought yet! With their third album „Third age of the sun“ the Fins in Battlelore fulfill their two works „…Where the shadows lie“ and „Sword´s Song“. Make it or break it, this is the motto. With that third album, which is made of 13 songs around Tolkien´s world, there won´t be any troubles to get more attention. As the support act for Sirenia/Trail of Tears in the year 2003 and also as the support act for Leaves´s Evey/Atrocity, the 7 fellows toured through Europe. At that time, Battlelore have gone down well. And this they can continue with that album!
This diversified opus performs real acrobatics due to the songwriting.

From album to album you can hear the progress. The rhythms you already know from the beginning of Battlelore are finally bettered through more difficult hooks of drummer Henri Vahvanen. Altogether it draws attention that Battlelore still use the gentle melodies (hypnotically sung by Kaisa Jouhki) combined with the rough male vocals. New member Tomi Mykkänen celebrates his new job in Battlelore. After the leaving of singer Patrik Mennander, Tomi substitutes the charismatic front man and did his on tour job so well that he was kept right after the tour and has become a firm member of the band. The same thing happened to bassist Timo Honkanen, who substitutes former bassist and founding member Miika Kokkola. Hopefully there will be a bit silence in the line-up of Battlelore.

Battlelore did a big step forward with this album, without losing their distinctive, typical sound. „Third age of the sun“ sounds sophisticated, powerfull, heavier and also more professional than music of Battlelore ever did.
With the intro „Usvainen Rhun“ the first killer song is going to be introduced: „Storm of the blades“. The already on tour played „Ghan of the woods“ is on CD as good as live. Remarkable is the brutal heaviness of the keyboards in combination with the power der remaining instruments. Battlelore push themselves! „Gwaith-i-Mirdain“ and „Trollshaws“ will be enriched not only with the keyboards of Maria, but also with her flute arts. Threatening sounds come into their own in the last mentioned song as well as the whispered words of „Gollum“. „Elves of Luva“ is the turn of a great ballad that is exclusively written for the wonderful voice of Elbish girl Kaisa. Wonderful!! Battlelore dwarves theirselves. With „Valier – Queens of the Valar“ and „Thousand caves“ you can hear songs of well known style. Second mentioned song has got a very nice choir part in the middle. „Cloaked in her unlight“ reminds on „Journey to undying lands“ from the debut album. The next song called „Of orcs and elves“ shows us for the reiterate time that this songs doesn´t need to have clean male vocals. „Touch of green and gold“ kidnapps the listener to the folkloristic corner of Middleearth. But that doesn´t miss the energy. Slowly we are coming to the end of the album. With „Pallando – forgotten wizards“ we have another dull piece of music. And finally the guys and girls let Smeagol cry in „Gollum´s Cry“.
Awesome album!

Tracklist

Usvainen Rhun – 1:36
Storm of the blades – 3:22
Ghan of the woods – 4:41
Gwaith-i-Mirdain – 3:43
Trollshaws – 4:07
Elves of Luva – 4:39
Valier – Queens of the Valar – 4:19
Thousand caves – 4:05
Cloaked in her unlight – 4:13
Of orcs and elves – 4:26
Touch of green and gold – 3:59
Pallando – Forgotten wizards – 3:31
Gollum´s cry – 3:03

Line-up

Jyri Vahvanen – guitars
Kaisa Jouhki – female vocals
Tomi Mykkänen – male vocals
Timo Honkanen – bass guitar
Maria – keyboards, flute
Jussi Rautio – guitars
Henri Vahvanen – drums