Battlelore is a 7 member band from Finland, formed in 1999, which released this year their 5^th album titled: «The Last Alliance». Their music could be mostly characterized as mainly atmospheric death metal, and is following the well-known motive of succession between brutal male to melodic female vocals. Their music includes some epic elements enclosed in their groovy guitars, as well as in the atmosphere created by the keyboards. By hearing their name, as well as the label in their promo cd: ”Epic fantasy metal”, it cites to a more epic sound than the one we are listening to (at least that’s what I had imagined). The lyrics are influenced by J.R Tolkien and the compositions gather various elements from different genres.

Truth is, I am really tired of bands of this genre mushrooming all over without having much to offer, but by listening to their album more carefully, I realized  their music is much more complex and interesting than most of them. Each song has continuing changes from melodic forms and folk compositions to riffed power guitars and again to more thrash/death lines in equal amounts. I think it has every potential to satisfy the band and the genre’s fans. The production is very good and the band has a tight line up and the ability to compose nice melodies. Among the most interesting are: “Green Dragon”, “Epic dreams”, “The Star of the High Hope”.