Caladan Brood - Echoes of Battle (2013)

Here's a little something for all you Summoning fans. It's sprawling, epic, and beautiful but (and here's the kicker) it's has nothing to do with Lord of the Rings! Instead, the band chose to base their debut album around Steven Erikson's "Malazan Book of the Fallen" series which I had never heard of before I found out Caladan Brood. About the music though, the orchestration is absolutely masterful and delightfully Romantic. You can easily imagine yourself being swept away to some epic landscape far away fighting in glorious battles. Indeed, the atmospherics on this album are some of the best I've heard in black metal and even beat Summoning at their own game in some regards. The harsh vocals also sound like those of Summoning and evoke both a sense of desperation and resolve. In all, this is an incredible feat of musicianship that will not only satiate Summoning fans until the latter's next release, but also stands in its own right as a black metal masterpiece. I thought Paysage d'Hiver had black metal AOTY locked up, but now it looks like he has competition.
9.5/10