Uruk-Hai — In Durins Halls (Return To The Mines Of Moria)
Uruk-Hai is a one-man black metal/ambient band hailing from Austria, (which is an interesting fact by itself) active since the late 90s. His discography is an impressively long list of demos, splits and full lengths not dissimilar to the vast over-production of releases that I'm used to see in the noise scene.
It's quite hard to explain the quite overwhelming feeling of amazement provoked by the bizarre cocktail of sounds in this album. Epic ambient escapades and medieval-ish/ tribal programmed drumming battle with gritty black metal shrieks and classic monotone guitar shredding, while classical-music influenced delicate synth sounds punctuate the most atmospheric moments. It's clear that mr. Hugin (the sole executor and composer of the whole work) put a lot of effort and thought in the careful layout of his songs, trying to balance aggressive moments and evocative, open synth soundscapes. The riffing is very basic, and the guitar sounds are pretty "plastic" and quite weak, but I think they work mostly as a simple reinforcement for the other elements of Uruk-Hai's sound.
The grotesque, painful vocals and the extremely clean computer sequenced sounds are very naive and completely odd, but I think this also adds to the strength of this album. Uruk-Hai ranks among the rare projects that sound so weird and out of time that they become good. His approach reminded me of the deranged French underground metal genius Fadades and his baroque and otherworldly imagination.
Hugin has his own very personal, cohesive and coherent sound and a crystal clear vision of the effect he wants to obtain with his music. All his songs are very "visual" indeed, and just like classical orchestral music they easily create images and cinematic scenes in the listener's mind.
In conclusion, it's impossible to be unaffected by Uruk-Hai. You either hate it and dismiss it as complete garbage, or you embrace his bizarre music and let yourself be transported in this Austrian guy's black metal re-imagination of J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth.
"In Durins Halls.." contains a bonus video including obscure Alps landscapes that reminded me of my hometown, magic Rings, the Eye Of Sauron and of course the transparent image of Hugin creeping in with an epic final dance. Brilliant.
Recommended only to those who're willing to appreciate something unique. Maximum respect to Hugin and his project