TRASHIN RAGE - 2001

1. What were the reasons for the long period of time that separates "Stronghold" from "Let Mortal Heroes Sing Your Fame" ?
Protector:
The time between "Stronghold" and "Let Mortal Heroes Sing Your Fame" was not longer than the time between "Nightshade Forest" and "Stronghold". We always don't make to much pressure when working for new music. Apart from that we both are involved in other musical project with have the same priority as Summoning. We think that making a longer pause between the releases and dealing with other project keeps the work for "Summoning" more fresh and interesting for us. When we start working for new songs it is always as if we would start for the first time; it never gets a routine this way.

2. How do you see the band's musical evolution from "Stronghold" to "Let Mortal Heroes Sing Your Fame" ?
Protector:
The keyboards are definitely much louder and carry much more melody information than on Stronghold, where we concentrated more on the guitars and reduced the polyphonic structure of the keyboards a bit. We also put more dominance on the drums-sounds this time, and especially mixed the tom toms louder; so that the CDs is now more epic and less rocky than "Stronghold"

3. Musically speaking, what were your sources of inspiration to compose "Let Mortal Heroes Sing Your Fame"? Which composers do you admire ? Explain why ?
Silenius:
Musical wise I have no special inspiration over the last years, because the music I listen privately has nothing in common with the music of "Summoning", and therefore gave me no direct inspiration for the work of "Summoning" so most of the songs where just composed threw the ability and experience.

5. What kind of emotions do you want to express through your compositions ?
Silenius:
As ever the musical atmospheres which we create with our music are clear:
A very epic, but nevertheless metal-like translation of Tolkiens concept as always filled with heroic and ancient touches. Because of the (for the first time) more often used spoken word samples this time the atmospheres became more vivid.

6. The new album is again based on Tolkien's famous novel "The Lord Of The Rings".
Do you see it as an endless source of inspiration for SUMMONING ?
Silenius:
As on "Stronghold" we didn't only use lyrics from "Tolkien" for the CD. This time we also integrated lyrics from "Michael Moorcock"; but we will surely use the lyrics of Tolkien for many further Summoning songs.

7. Have you seen the movie ? What do you think of it ?
Silenius:
I really liked the movie of course there are always things that could be complained or don't come along with the own imagination of the book. But all in all I think this movie translation couldn't have done better; the only thing I was surprised comparing the movie with the old book was that a really great battle was missing, but I think that makes the watcher only curious to watch the next part.

8. What is the meaning behind the title "Let Mortal Heroes Sing Your Fame" ?
Silenius:
For me the title is an ironic homage to Tolkien. It means that we are the "heroes" who sing about Tolkiens fame. But while this fame increases from year to year ours will surely stay quite small and maybe fade (after a potential band split). So we are the "mortal heroes".

9. How do you see your progression as a vocalist since "Stronghold" ? To work and experiment your vocals is something important for you ?
Protector:
The vocals have surely become less chaotic because we now plan them better and take much time to tune the words better to the rhythms of our vocal lines. On our first CD for example we recorded the vocals without any practice before. But anyway I don't think that the vocals are the most important thing on Summoning; it is the keyboards and the drum sounds.
Silenius:
Since "Stronghold" the vocal-lines got more rhythmic with a strict border between the strophe and the chorus. Some fans worried about that screems and growls nearly have been abandoned in our songs; this was not planned by us; we simply forgot because we didn't think of it to be too necessary.

10. Do you see the work of SUMMONING as a kind of saga ?
Silenius:
Yes definitely. By listening to our music people drown into the world of Tolkien and forget everyday life just as if they would read a book of Tolkien.

11. What is your own definition of the word "art" ?
Protector:
The word "art" derived from the word artificial, and this is what "art" has to be. Every kind of art creates an artificial word that doesn't exist in reality. Even if it is art about reality, then it is an artificial reality, but Summoning prefers to create an artificial fantasy world instead.

12. SUMMONING released its debut album "Lugburz" back in 1995,
how do you see your own spiritual evolution from thse times to tosay, over a period of 6 years ?
Protector:
On our first CD we simply wanted to live up our interests in black metal without thinking too much. We didn't take too much care of structure and atmosphere and the idea of a potential CD deal hardly existed.
On "Minas Morgul" we were able to enjoy our new gained musical freedom (due to the discharge of our ex-drummer Trifixion). Since then we were able to unfold musically without any borders, and to abandon our previously existing black metal and rock pattern, and to create moods of wide fantasy landscapes and fantasy worlds.
"Dol Guldur" was for us rather a copy of "Minas Morgul". Although many of our older fans consider this CD as the best CD of Summoning, we prefer "Minas Morgul" to "Dol Guldur".
In "Nightshade Forest" we soon got a bit disturbed by the quite weak and expressionless guitar-sound.
With "Stronghold" we decided to put more dominance on the guitars again and started to create more complex and information enriched riffs with played in most parts and even more dominant role than the keyboards. The side effect was that the polyphonic structure of the keyboards was reduced quite strong.
"Let Mortal Heroes Sing Your Fame" combined the strength of the older polyphonic keyboard orientated CDs with the more complex guitar-style of "Stronghold". Apart from that we put more dominance on the drum-sounds again (especially on the Tom Toms), so that we new turned again more away from the rocky elements to the epic, sluggish elements.

13. To end, could you talk about the current activities of your other projects, DIE VERBANNTEN KINDER EVAS and ICE AGES ? What about the musical and lyrical contents of the forthcoming releases?
Protector:
Till now we are too occupied with making interview and answering fan letters, so that we didn't start with any of our other projects. But the next CD I will work for will be a new "Die Verbannten Kinder Evas" CD.