The Only Black Metal Act to Come out of Rivendell ....

Who would have thought, a LOTR's named band that sings about LOTR's?!? Not like Gandalf or Minas Morgul I'm not gonna fall for that again. Rivendell is a one man project by Falagar who performs all instruments and vocals. "The Ancient Glory" is a good debut and majestic in it's simplicity. Rivendell's style is in the same vein as Summoning and Falkenbach (which is a one man project who also runs the label Rivendell is signed to). The music is a mix of folky doom/black metal that's slow to mid paced in tempo. Most songs intro with an acoustic guitar before kicking in with a killer doom riff Falagar uses a variety of instruments such as keyboards, acoustic and electric guitars, flutes and what not to bring a folk like feel to the music and roots it into the medieval feel of Middle-Earth. The drums here are more blasting and black metal like than Summoning. The guitars are familiar in their black metal melody riffing and the doom like power chording is simplistic but powerful. "The Ancient Glory" can feel a bit drone-like a times in that each song has a similar sound. The song "The King Beneath The Mountains" has the most black metal sound, but "Theoden" and "Durin's Halls" don't do to bad themselves. "Malbeth The Seer's Words" to me seems to be the most doomy. The best mix of Doom/black metal has to be on the two parter epic "The Song Of Nimrodel" especially part II which is quite dark with its underwater like keys and bell tolling (I love those deep bell tones!). My favourite track would have to be "Aragorn Son of Arathorn". This 7 and a half minute epic is the most majestic of the songs on this album. It has a great guitar melody and Falagars. clean vocals just soar a long with the guitars, but there is also a dark edge to the track which helps with the epic feel to the tune.

All in all, this is a valiant effort and a good debut for Rivendell. And Falagar only gets better as heard on his follow-up album, the songs become more complex. But before we get to that, I want to explore Valar, another one man project based around Tolkien and feature's a little Caribbean flavour ..... you'll see what I mean.