Battlelore's second album "Sword's Song", though much in the same style as the first, lacks .... something. I don't know what really, but I think it is because no one song is very memorable. The first album had me hooked right from the first track and I would listen to it damn near daily. This one took a little while to grow on me, but it's not one that I urge to listen to. The album art on "Sword's Song" is good, with a wider range of costumes and characters like Gollum and an Ent. Though the first with the character bios is priceless.

The songs are good and remain true to their folky/death metal feel though not as doomy as the first. The album comes across as too polished and not as passionate as "Shadows..." was. Stand out tracks for me are "The War of Wrath", "Dragonslayer" and "Forked Heights" (which has single written all over it, but a catchy tune none the less) and the title track has a great thrashy death metally riff/vocals towards the end of the tune which I love. "Attack of the Orcs" which is not a bad tune and pretty brutal has sci-fi-ish sound effects that kinda don't really fit, which is a shame cause the tune could have shined.


Overall this not a bad album, but a little disappointing. They couldn't even summon the efforts to make a music video for any of the songs for this album. Speaking of Summoning, my next post will feature the band Summoning whose atmospheric black metal shines out about the darker sides of Middle-Earth, in my continuing LOTR's theme.