RELEASES

REVIEWS

Hmm. On one hand, here’s an epic DS release that has some haze and murk to it - there’s generally a sweeping sense on this release, and this does the trick at capturing a high-fantasy mood without feeling too sterile. On the other hand, this falls into the trap that just about every epic orchestral project does, in that there’s something on just about every track that feels like Howard Shore’s score for LOTR (Yes, even Murgrind falls into this trap). I don’t mean to suggest that this project is scraping the bottom of the barrel or anything - there’s a lot of ideas here, and none of them are outright bad. The well timed harpsichord breakdown in the middle of the first track is a wonderful touch, and overall while these tracks are quite repetitive, they have a sense of build and flow that makes every detail feel competently chosen, not just included because that’s what is expected of an epic project. You get some intermittent narration here - and it’s all totally indistinguishable to me, downpitched and drowning in reverb, but it works. There’s a lot of nice orchestral percussion touches beyond just pounding bass drums, and the willingness to occasionally fall back on keyboard sounds like piano and harpsichord add to a bit variety to more subdued moments works well. “From Olden Times” begins with just some plaintive piano and this works really nice, inverting the usual “Loud soft loud” formula you hear in a lot of epic stuff. My biggest complaint is that at 40 minutes, this record feels a little long mostly because it is pretty samey. “From Olden Times” and the album closer “Song of Mournful Star” are really the only dynamic shifts in formula here, and even “From Olden Times” feels like a continuation from “Horn of Thousand Battles” in terms of being roughly the same tempo and key. It’s a bit of a shame, as each track I think is somewhere between good and great, but listening to this in a single sitting I get a little impatient around the halfway mark. It would’ve been nice to have a little more of a battle-ready tune somewhere in the first half, after the epic mood was established, something a little faster or more exciting? Worth adding songs from this to a playlist, perhaps? I noticed this album sequence problem with Carnefaxian and Thangorodrim as well - epic stuff doesn’t handle repetition (within individual songs or albums)  as well as minimal stuff does. But unlike those projects, Galdur stands out for being a bit lighter, even though the mood is still a very serious fantasy mood. I couldn’t tell you why but I’m reminded a bit of Erang’s composition (when that artist goes for a more epic sound), and I think generally there’s a nice sense of wonder about this album that makes it not a chore to come back to. Earlier records have a bit more diversity within their high fantasy mood, including some more Summoning like elements like drum kit percussion and tremolo picked guitars. It makes this one an interesting contrast in this artist’s catalog so far. My feelings about hi-fi music are definitely shifting, and I think this album will certainly have some replay value in the weeks and months to come. I think, also, that this is one of the few artists I’m aware of who also has a currently active black metal project (or two), and given the genre’s origins, that’s relatively rare and worth noting. 

DISCOGRAPHY

current line up

PAST MEMBERS