STORMKEEP Tales Of Othertime

I don’t listen to black metal nearly as often these days as I did 15-20 years ago, but once in a while there comes an album out of this genre that really catches my attention. Denver, Colorado based Stormkeep’s latest offering Tales Of Othertime certainly did just that. Stormkeep belongs in the symphonic/orchestral end of the black metal genre and are of course heavily inspired by the giants of the Norwegian scene when it comes to the music, while lyrically they tend more towards fantasy and medieval times stories. The album consists of four relatively long songs (8 to 11 minutes), plus two shorter instrumentals and the total runtime is just above 43 minutes. Tales Of Othertime is a very well-produced and ditto arranged album, but it’s the songwriting that really makes it stand out. The great songwriting along with tasteful orchestral arrangements and fantasy themes makes this a truly exceptional release. Imagine a hybrid of Dimmu Borgir’s Stormblåst, Emperor’s In The Nightside Eclipse and Rhapsody’s (yes the Italian fantasy/power metal act) Legendary Tales and you should have a pretty good idea of what to expect. As you have probably figured out by now I was really caught off guard by this one, and while it remains to see how it stands the test of time I predict that in the future this album will be spoken of as a classic within the genre. I was tempted to award it with full score, but finally landed on nine out of ten points.

Discography:

Tales Of Othertime (2021)