Wishlist for new SUMMONING album

[Conservationist]

I am excited as hell about the new Summoning. A few requests, if anyone is listening:

(1) Vary the melodies. Within each song. Like how on Ancient Trolltaar melodies go from dark to happy. Possibly even vary key! There are other helpful scales for the fills.
(2) Vary the song structures more. They're getting a bit formulaic. It's better to go full Tolkien and use visual or symbolic representations, then hammer them into a comfortable sound.
(3) More stuff in old Elvish or the Black Tongue of Mordor.
(4) Consider more Tangerine Dream like stuff where the drums get dropped or you get some true ambience
(5) Consider more organic sounds
(6) Consider an instrumental track or two, maybe longer tracks. Will Summoning ever do something like Metallica's "Orion," which has now been covered by two dozen non-metal bands and is still cited by many as a massive influence?
(7) Don't try to be current. Stick with what made black metal great.

And remember, SUMMONING is not a fascist band!

[scourge]

Surprise us, as with Oath Bound. Some may adore it, some may wish it were more like another album. Protector knows best.

Heil Protector!

[ChapelOfTorment]

Maybe build on the pretty unique guitar-playing style they introduced on Oathbound, but if they go back to the roots and do something different entirely, that's cool too. Whatever they do, it'll probably be great.

[hoodwink]

my wish has little to do with the songwriting and everything to do with mastering.  in the case of Oath Bound, the album was mastered so poorly that any nuances in the music are utterly lost when played louder than a whisper.  the incessant distortion serves no purpose other than to detract from the overall result and makes the listening experience quite unpleasant.

lesson to be learned: there's no reason to master an album of folk music like it's a Limp Bizkit single. 

[aquarius]

I think the songwriting on Oathbound is superior to the two albums preceding it, really it's a fruition of the style they began with Stronghold. I think they are striving to make it more organic and spontaneous, much like the recent Lord Wind, or at least make the formula less obvious, like the song Might and glory which is more of a figure-eight than a cirle.

Maybe build on the pretty unique guitar-playing style they introduced on Oathbound, but if they go back to the roots and do something different entirely, that's cool too. Whatever they do, it'll probably be great.

Definitely true. I always thought the rock/metal technique of palm-muted guitar chords doesn't blend well with the orchestral sounds.

[wEEman33]

I don't recall much palm muting in Oath Bound. The guitar parts are mostly chords and tremolo picking.

Mortal Heroes and Stronghold were full of it, though. That is one of the reasons why those two albums are Summoning's weakest.

[Dinaric Leather]

(7) Don't try to be current. Stick with what made black metal great.

And remember, SUMMONING is not a fascist band!

They need to be current, most classical artists that you hold in high esteem made an effort to be current for their time, because thats simply adapting to your environment, as all intelligent people do. I've had enough of the 90s.

And yeah I know, Summoning aren't fascists, they're pussies like all non-fascists are. I love fascists such as the Surenos, Vagos, Crips, Nortenos and Nazis. They keep the true spirit of humanity alive.

[Conservationist]

I don't recall much palm muting in Oath Bound. The guitar parts are mostly chords and tremolo picking.

Mortal Heroes and Stronghold were full of it, though. That is one of the reasons why those two albums are Summoning's weakest.

Oath Bound was a return to Dol Guldur-style form, where the two albums after it flirted with being more populist. Summoning realized that their audience likes Dead Can Dance more than Goth-rock bands.

[wEEman33]

Yes, if we're adding things to the Summoning wishlist, no more hip hop beats or female vocals is high on my list.

UGH 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjCNjOWIeMs

UGH 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIcnVYUAlJg

I try to forget that album exists in their discography.

Mortal Heroes at least has three or so good tracks on it at the beginning and at the very end. But everything in the middle of that album sucks, too.

[aquarius]

I don't recall much palm muting in Oath Bound. The guitar parts are mostly chords and tremolo picking.

Mortal Heroes and Stronghold were full of it, though. That is one of the reasons why those two albums are Summoning's weakest.

That's actually what I mean. There is a lot better blending of instruments on Oathbound, especially the open-strings in the guitarwork, complemented by the perfect use of soft distorion.

And regarding the two preceding albums, well they weren't complete failures. I tend to think of them as experiments in compositional expansion, without which Oathbound might not be as well thought out. I only wish they would consolidate all the ideas onto one great album rather than fill the gaps with patchy material.

[wEEman33]

The best part of Mortal Heroes was the advancements made to the percussion. The early Summoning albums have painfully simple drum beats. Mortal Heroes was the album where the drums finally became more nuanced and layered.

Summoning's use of percussion on Oath Bound is really unlike any other metal band. There is zero "rock n roll" or "metal" drumming. It is more like something you'd hear in an orchestra setting or tribal counsel.

[lord.aspie]

Looks like the new SUMMONING reccord is well on its way for a release in 2013:

We now have finished the composing and selection process of the songs for the new albums (7 songs and one intro). All songs that did not find the way to the album will hopefully be released on future limited releases. In the next months we will record the already composed guitar lines and work on the lyrical concept of the album.

We also collected some paintings for the new album and will work on the visual concept from now on. We hope to be finished with everything untill the end of the year, so that the album can be released by Napalm Records in the first quater of the year 2013.

We also have the news from Napalm Records that in the end of this year there will be a vinyl release of some older Summoning releases. More details soon.

[Stranger]

i'd love to hear something similar to nightshade forests in aesthetic, and the song-structure off oath bound, in their next release.

a few instrumentals would be nice as well.

[aquarius]

This is great news. I hope for something to top Oathbound.

[fallot]

And remember, SUMMONING is not a fascist band!

As fascist as Tolkien.