Summoning - Lugburz (1995)^{Release ID: 1419}

Summoning's opening foray into the world of black metal is the authentic harsh and abrasive style most fans of the genre love to hear.  It is a complete misrepresentation of the rest of their discography mind so is not a good gauge of future offerings which is both a gift and a curse depending on where you sit on the band's unique sound.  It sounds very much like a debut album would do full of excitable riffing and kvlt vocals but it also suffers from this same enthusiasm in equal parts.

Lugburz is instantly forgettable as a record because the quality control was more or less switched off during songwriting.  All ideas were deemed good ones it seems and the album swallows and regurgitates itself over a number of times as passages and tracks just merge into one another with riffs getting used over and over again.  The authenticity factor is obvious as I say but the actual intelligence behind the composition of a track is not the best.

The vocals never quite get to add depth or dimension to proceedings with any notable howls or shrieks to entice the ear beyond the repetitve nature of most tracks.  As is the case with most albums that suffer from this lack of invention, the experience seems longer than it actually is and you find yourself waiting for it all to end or itching to press the skip button.

Top marks have to be given for the effort even if the delivery is immature and as I say above this is the only album the band released that really sounded this way, the rest of the back-catalogue being more atmospheric and epic in nature.  Here this is only hinted at by the intro track at the beginning of the record so if you are a fan of the latter output and have never got round to their earlier stuff you can save yourself the bother on this.