Summoning - Lugburz (1995)

Having been together for nearly twenty years now, Vienna, Austria's Summoning has been creating some of the most majestic and unique music this side of Middle Earth, however in the early days things were a bit different sounding. I always find it to be interesting to go back to bands debut albums, especially if said band has been making music for years with many great releases behind them. This particularly tends to hold truth for a lot of early black metal bands since they've often gotten weaker in their fierce storming callousness or completely changed to some sort of easily acceptable sound breed purely for monetary gain as their career progresses (Satyricon, I'm looking at you).

‘Lugburz’ the debut from Summoning is their most black metal sounding recording and really their only creation (the demo tapes too) that fits in the typical confines of the black metal genre. You won’t find the bands now trademark drawn out heavily synthesized epic medieval Tolkien inspired music with minimal black metal influences here, but what you will still find is one stunning black metal release. The music presented on Lugburz features raw tremolo picked melodic guitars, fast but decent drumming, small keyboard/piano usage and Silenius’ merciless tortured screams (Protector backs him up and Pazuzu also adds some narration); more or less creating the typical black metal sound.

There are some moments where synth is solely used, which bare similarities to where the band would be going in the future, but generally the album sticks to a straight forward early 90's Norwegian black metal sound, though it hardly sounds like Burzum, Immortal or Mayhem. The guitar tone however is quite similar to the first Satyricon album, yes, buzzed up chainsawed and raw as the dead and holy fuck I love those riffs in, 'Flight of the Nazgul' & 'Dragons of Time.' The overall production is thin, but it creates a great atmosphere and the drums are totally organic and almost live sounding and hell even the bass guitar is slightly audible. As no surprise parts of this album doesn’t sound entirely different from the first Abigor album either, which maybe explains why the band decided to change their style.

With, 'Lugburz' Summoning managed to create a real masterpiece with this recording that has the typical Norwegian black metal ingredients, yet somehow still transcends a lot of the other bands out there at the time. Sure it’s different, and it’s generally lacking that epic sound that the band is well known for, but features excellent memorable guitar work and just the right malevolent dark atmosphere to hook you in and keep you coming back for more.