#Grimdor

[albumarchives]

Grimdor | Minas Tirith (2022)

[theruffiansretrorampage]

art by grimdorables

[a-funeral-pyre]

A few more songs related to stuff

It's not much, but it's honest work.

Masque of the Red Death:

-Masque of the Red Death, Crimson Glory

The Lord of the Rings:

-Gollum, Erchamion

-Dungeon of Barad-Dur, Erchamion

-In pursuit of the Orcish horde, Orodruin

-Smeagol, Elexorien

-The world is changed, Kanthaka

-Spell of the Balrog, Orcrypt

-The necromancer arise, Daoloth

-Lord of illusion, Domini Tenebrarum

-Ringwraiths, Ringwraith

-Temptation of the Ring, Opus Majestic

The Silmarillion:

-Fall of Gondolin, Ondolindë

-Shores of Valinor (full album), Valinor (one of the songs is also about LOTR)

-Luthien, Icewind Tales

-Death of Glaurung, Grimdor

Commedia:

-At the infernal portal (canto III), Ancient

Celtic mythology & lore:

-The cauldron born, Damh the Bard

Arthuriana:

-Emprise to Avalon (full album), Suidakra

-Lady of Shalott, A Dream of Poe

Vampyr:

-Vampyr (full album), Year of No Light

Dracula:

-The spawn of Dracula, Necromicon

Norse mythology & lore:

-Yggdrasil, Danheim

[digital-dryad]

ents......

[ketikamoth]

[fuckyeahblackmetaldesigns]

Grimdor - The Shadow of the Past

[mellamame]

[hearthedungeons]

Grimdor - Tharkûn (Demo) and The Mountain Path (Demo)

In the past I've chosen to review two short albums by an artist because they are a complement to each other. In this case, it's just because these two releases comprise maybe a total of 9 minutes of music. Grimdor is apparently quite loved for this sort of thing - other releases have combined DS and raw Black Metal into the sound, and those set a fairly high standard for that mix of genres that is often imitated and very rarely reached, in my opinion, with a combination of low-fi sound and fully conceived songwriting and execution that perhaps sounds easier to do than it actually is.

For the releases at hand, we have pure DS. Tharkûn (Demo) clocks in at 5 minutes and 58 seconds, while The Mountain Path is 2 minutes and 48 seconds. Both releases seem to be recorded in a single take, with a single instrument setting. The brevity of the tracks means, for the most part, that not a note is wasted. You'll hear absolutely nothing new here harmonically - these songs are all built on the very archetypal chord progressions of dungeon synth, but it is their strong melodic presence that drives them. These melodies - sometimes leading the piece, sometimes working in the space around a simple rhythmic figure - all seem improvised on the spot and in relation to the keyboard patch used. If there's more than a single musical idea, you never hear each idea more than once - no returning back to the original idea if the tune ever departs from its starting point. Compositionally this is about as barebones as it gets. Four out of 5 of the pieces on Tharkûn have the same key center (A minor), and when you're dealing with archetypal DS composition, you end up with what feels like some redundant melodies. The first three tracks here seem perfectly evocative and assured, the kind of timeless combination of . The last two feel a little more meandering or uncertain, as though perhaps a creative or chemical buzz was starting to fade.

The pros of this approach are that when the iron is hot, the end result is totally evocative - for less than 90 seconds per song. Some of these melodies, in combination with the minimal but well chosen sound world, are about as evocative of the mythic/medieval sound as any of the 90s classic recordings. The cons are that 6 minutes is, for most of us, not enough time to really make a proper escape from the world. As part of a gaming or reading playlist (perhaps consisting of the entire discography, which would be maaaaybe one hour at most), this music would make an excellent contribution.

The even shorter "The Mountain Path (Demo), begins with one track, also in A minor. This one feels like it could've been left off of Tharkûn, but it's a phenomenal melody, about as complex as can be accomplished with a simplistic progression like this without feeling too meandering. The second track offers some pretty significant contrast (compared to the other release), both in terms of the qualities of the melody and the key (F# minor). The progression is similar, but the character of each is quite a contrast.

So the question on my mind - why so many short releases? This artist seems to have access to a dungeon stream of great purity, yet only choses to dip a shallow cup in for each release. The artwork is evocative, yet the tracks have no titles. The album titles themselves are unfamiliar to a person with a more-than-passing knowledge of the Tolkien universe, but without much else to go on, it feels like a default setting for creative inspiration. Does the artist feel as though the magic would somehow be ruined if the length of these releases got any longer? I would love to know

But it is useless to complain about what isn't here - what IS here is quite strong and evocative. I bet this artist could destroy the competition if they chose to put out even a 20 minute release with even a tiny bit more versatility, though.

[conocimiento-ocultozine]

Grimdor - The Lonely Mountain (Full EP)

[albumarchives]

Grimdor | Rivendell (2021)

[episodeangry]

I'd die for these survival instincts

[shinjecom-blog]

Grimdor - The Lonely Mountain (2017) Raw Black Metal

[episodechooseyoursubmission]

[askrobouteguilliman40k]

Prayer of Gotrek, by @grimdorables