Grimdor - The Land of Shadow Review

I think I had been reading information about an actual Grimdor full length album as far back as two years ago, yet it seemed like something quite distant since the project is ridiculously active with releases, not only under this moniker but through many. This year alone, they already have four more EPs with Grimdor and I am sure there's more to come, while they constantly make short tape runs of their long back catalog. Nevertheless, the band's debut release is finally reality and there's a few points to note compared to their usual activities: there is by now colorized, proper digitally designed artwork (made by Silvana Massa), all the tracks are longer than usual and they have aimed for a generally cleaner sound in both parts of the record. The Land of Shadow, as always, heavily referencing Tolkien's universe, is made of two distinct sections: the first four tracks of monotonous raw black metal and the last three, of the distinctive dungeon synth style of Grimdor. Elements of one side do not interfere with the other, and could have been separate releases in another world, yet as a whole this falls 100% inside the ballpark of what a Grimdor fan would expect. Now, their black metal tunes are basically Burzum of the self-titled album era. The structure and the feeling, the riffs, even the style of playing is almost identical sometimes, with an only difference that Varg's vocals at the time were vastly better than the vocals here, yet the outcome is not completely lousy. It manages enough to just recognize a fine job of a worship act. On the dungeon synth side, as Grimdor are used to 1-2 minute pieces, there is a lot of repetition of a few melodies in each track to reach a needed duration length. I don't mind that at all, in fact I strongly prefer simplistic ambient to this seemingly grandiose dungeon synth artists that are out there, yet now that the production has been cleared, the verdict is also easier too see: an average record that gets 0.5 extra because I like Lord of the Rings. [3/5 - Good]

Origin: United States / Germany

Label: Self-released

Release date: August 9th, 2022

Listen: Bandcamp