Battlelore: Соғыс әні мен көлеңкелердің оралуы

Finnish heavy metal band
the metal band

Battlelore's first demo Warrior's Tale was released in late 1999, the same year of the founding of the group, but Battlelore attracted the attention of the Austrian record label Napalm Records only after the publication of the second demo Dark Fantasy in late 2000, which featured for the first time long standing members Kaisa Jouhki as female singer, Henri Vahvanen on drums and Maria Honkanen on keyboards. Under request from the label, the band recorded an untitled 3 tracks demo before finally signing the contract. In the fall of 2001, the band was at Music Bros. Studios to record their debut album with producer Miitri Aaltonen. Around this time, guitarist Tommi Havo left the band for personal reasons and was replaced by the current lead guitarist Jussi Rautio. The debut album, Where the Shadows Lie, which includes re recorded songs coming from early demos, was published in 2002 with good success. and then officially by the former frontman of the band Evemaster, Tomi Mykkänen. Mennander's last concert was at a show as headliner band at the RingCon (the official festival of The Lord of the Rings in Bonn, Germany). Bassist and founding member Miika Kokkola also left the band for personal reasons and was replaced by Timo Honkanen, a former tour roadie.

In January 2016, they announced that they would be performing a reunion concert at Metal Female Voices Fest XIII in October 2016. On 3 June 2022, they released their seventh studio album titled The Return of the Shadow, the band's first album in over a decade.

Battlelore mixes female vocals with harsh male growling in "beauty and the beast" duets, backed by heavy guitar riffing and occasional keyboard interludes. The band's style takes elements from gothic metal, folk metal, power metal and melodic death metal. Because of the variety of Battlelore's music, different reviewers have labeled the band with each of these genres, as well as idiosyncratic terms such as "epic metal" or "fantasy metal". According to Battlelore's official MySpace website, Bolt Thrower, Emperor, The Gathering, Kyuss, Black Sabbath, Morbid Angel, Katatonia, Anathema, My Dying Bride, Iron Maiden, W. A. S. P., Zakk Wylde, Dissection and Theatre of Tragedy are some of the artists who influenced the music of the band. Battlelore's lyrics are about Middle earth characters and events described by the British author J. R. R. Tolkien in The Lord of the Rings trilogy of books and in The Silmarillion. More lyrical inspiration comes from medieval literature and the Kalevala. Starting with the album Evernight, the band deliberately decided not to use names or places taken from the imaginary of Tolkien, although his works remain the main inspiration for their lyrics. The same inspiration marks the band's distinctive pseudo medieval stage show, in which each member is dressed up in costumes and fantasy makeup to look like "ferocious warriors", "dirty thieves" or "beautiful female elves".

Year Title The Official Finnish Charts 2002 Where the Shadows Lie — 2003 Sword's Song — 2005 Third Age of the Sun 38 2007 Evernight — 2008 The Last Alliance 26 2011 Doombound — 2022 The Return of the Shadow 44