In this week’s Blogging the Silmarillion, I’ve decided to take a temporary detour into two tastes that taste great together: Heavy metal and J.R.R. Tolkien. Following is a review of Blind Guardian’s Nightfall in Middle-earth, aka. The Silmarillion with electric guitars.

I can’t speak for all readers of The Cimmerian, but back when I was in high school—circa 1987-91—there was a bright line drawn between fantasy fiction and heavy metal. The former was the province of D&D-playing nerds, and the latter was for bad-asses who hung out in the back parking lots, wore denim and smoked cigarettes. And never the twain shall meet.

This divide was equal parts myth and reality, of course. Some people liked both. For example, I always prided myself on having one foot in each camp, and I was not alone—most of my friends were into metal, and many were also fans of books like The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever.

In addition, you could find a few examples of successful metal-fantasy alliances back then. For example, Iron Maiden attracted both stoners and readers alike with songs like “Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” “Alexander the Great,” and “To Tame a Land” (the latter was a song about Frank Herbert’s novel Dune). Black Sabbath’s album Heaven and Hell (fronted by Ronnie James Dio) had plenty of fantasy imagery in its lyrics, too.

Still, in the main, the two camps were on opposing sides of the battle-line, perennially at odds like the forces of Gondor and Minas Morgul.

After high school I lost touch with the day-to-day happenings in the heavy metal scene. I kept listening to bands like Maiden and Judas Priest, but I stopped paying attention to new trends and upcoming bands. Specifically, I failed to keep up with a new metal force rising like a steel wave out of the heart of Europe, until I woke up one day to find that heavy metal and J.R.R. Tolkien had inexplicably become bedfellows. The unholy offspring of this unlikely coupling was the 1998 album Nightfall in Middle-earth by Blind Guardian.

My mind reeled. When did this happen?  Some German power metal band had, without my knowledge, built a Bifröst bridge between hard-drinking leather-clad rebels and polyhedral dice-slinging members of The Tolkien Society? Yes, they had. And it was and remains awesome.

Now, I know heavy metal ain’t everyone’s cup o’ tea. But if you like Tolkien you might want to give Nightfall in Middle-earth a try. While it’s powerful and heavy, it’s as much melodic as it is bombastic, and it features singing instead of screaming (there’s none of the dreaded Cookie Monster-style vocals to speak of). Best of all it’s presented without irony: Blind Guardian’s genuine love of JRRT is evident in not only the packaging, but the well thought-out lyrics and the passionate delivery. Many metal bands have used fantasy imagery on their album covers, but very few understand and express an obvious passion for the source material like Blind Guardian.

I mean, take a look at the cover artwork of Nightfall in Middle-earth: That’s Luthien dancing before Morgoth in the pits of Angband, his iron crown glittering with the light of the three Silmarils. I’m guessing that’s the werewolf Carcharoth over on the right. On a heavy metal album cover!

Nightfall in Middle-earth covers only a portion of The Silmarillion. It leaves out the creation myths of Ainulindale and the Valaquenta and the story of the downfall of Numenor (the Akallabêth), focusing instead on the action of the Quenta Silmarillion. Fittingly, the album opens with the clangor of battle, the clash of steel on steel and cries of pain and hoarse command. This is the War of Wrath, the culminating battle of the First Age of Middle-earth. The sounds of battle fade to a conversation between Morgoth and Sauron (Blind Guardian uses bits of spoken dialogue throughout the album to help advance the story, and in general the voice-work and sounds effects are quite good). The Valar have returned with a vengeance and Angband is about to fall. Morgoth orders his right-hand lord to secret “places below” so that he may escape and wreak his evil another day.

Next comes “Into the Storm,” one of my favorite tracks on the album. It’s the story of the confrontation of Morgoth and Ungoliant, in which Ungoliant in her insatiable hunger demands to be fed the Silmarils, which the two have just stolen in their raid on Valinor. “Ungoliant” sings:

Blackheart show me
What you hold in hand
I still hunger for more
Release me from my pain
Give it to me

Morgoth refuses and Ungoliant wraps him in her webs. Morgoth’s cries of terror echo in the next brief track, “Lammoth.”

The action then switches back to Valinor which has fallen into unholy darkness, the two trees blackened and their light extinguished. In “Nightfall,” Feanor urges swift action. Enough mourning; the time for revenge is nigh:

How long shall we
Mourn in the dark
the bliss and the beauty
Will not return
Say farewell to sadness and grief
Though long and hard the road may be:

The next song, “The Curse of Feanor,” is another personal favorite. Here Feanor regrets his wicked deeds committed during his mission of revenge, but he also steadfastly refuses to forsake his oath, nor heed the stern warning of Mandos. Lead singer Hansi Kürsch passionately singing “Morgoth I cried; All hope is gone by I swear revenge!” is the worth the cover price of this album alone:

Don’t fear the eyes of the dark lord
Morgoth I cried
All hope is gone but I swear revenge
Hear my oath
I will take part in your damned fate

“Captured” and “Blood Tears” are about the capture of Maedhros, Morgoth’s chaining him by his wrist to a sheer cliff in the mountains of Thangorodrim, and his deliverance when Fingon hacks off his hand. Blind Guardian offers a moving look into the mind of Maedhros and the torment and pain he must have experienced.

While I’ve sadly never seen Blind Guardian live, “Mirror Mirror” with its strong chorus is an obvious concert favorite. It describes the feelings of the separated Noldor from the lands of bliss over the seas in the West. It alludes to the building of Gondolin and the great Elven fortresses designed to be places of safety and refuge, but which are only temporary reprieve against the might of Morgoth. As Kürsch (right) sings, “True hope lies beyond the coast”: The Noldor have lost their way by forsaking the Valar and trusting in the strength of seclusion and high walls. Morgoth is bent on destruction and enslavement (“The bitter end, It’s just a matter of time”) and will not be denied.

Likewise, “Noldor (Dead Winter Reigns)” brings home in powerful imagery the Doom of the Noldor. “Blood is on your hands, Tears unnumbered, you will shed and dwell in pain.”

Next comes a brief spoken passage describing the ruin of the Battle of Sudden Flame, followed by perhaps my favorite song on the album: “Time Stands Still (At the Iron Hill).” This concerns Fingolfin’s lone, suicidal ride to the gates of Angband to challenge Morgoth to single combat. It’s a pulse-pounding song that uses heavy metal’s strengths—powerful guitars, pounding drums like hoofbeats, and soaring vocals—to convey the glory of his fatal, final ride:

Lord of all Noldor
A star in the night
And a bearer of hope
He rides into glorious battle alone
Farewell to the valiant warlord

He gleams like a star
And the sound of his horn’s
Like a raging storm
Proudly the high lord
Challenges Doom
Lord of slaves he cries”

Slowly in fear
The dark lord appears
“Welcome to my lands
You shall be damned”

“Thorn” is the story of the ill-begotten Maeglin, son of Eol the Dark Elf, who betrays Gondolin to Morgoth. This slow, meditative song features some of my favorite guitar work on the album.

“The Eldar” is an extended death-speech by the Elven king Finrod after he is fatally wounded while saving Beren from a werewolf in the darkness of the pits of Angband. He dies in Beren’s arms.

After the dirge of “The Eldar,” Blind Guardian kicks it into high gear again with “When Sorrow Sang.” This is about Lúthien’s song before Mandos which so moves the Lord of the Dead that he returns Beren to life (the only mortal man to be so brought back).

Next comes the brief interlude “The Steadfast.” Here Morgoth boasts to Húrin that he is king of the world, the Master of Fate on Arda with the power to pronounce Doom on his subjects. “Damned shall thy house be,” he says to Húrin. This leads into “A Dark Passage,” which tells of Húrin’s last stand at the Battle of Unnumbered Tears and the coming of Men, which carry with them dark beginnings and an uncertain future. Morgoth is in full, evil flower here (Kursch’s singing captures Morgoth’s hatred quite chillingly) and the Dark Lord seems to hold all the strings. But Blind Guardian leaves us with a small glimmer of hope in “Final Chapter (Thus Ends…)”:

Though the land lies down in agony and the curse lives on
A new star shall arise
And a new day shall come, again

Thus ends Nightfall in Middle-earth. Though I don’t have it, a remastered version contains the bonus track “Harvest of Sorrow,” which apparently is about Túrin mourning the death of his sister Nienor. I’m embarrassed to say I never knew this until now (in my defense neither is mentioned by name in the song; you can listen to it yourself here ). “Harvest of Sorrow” is a great example of Blind Guardian’s versatility; their catalogue includes both melodic, medieval-sounding hymns and hard-driving songs evoking battlefield savagery. It’s why they’ve become one of my favorite bands over the years. And their obvious love for the works of JRRT doesn’t hurt, either.

(Addendum: Now that I’ve become a little more learned in the Middle Ages, the union of heavy metal and fantasy stories seems like a natural, even obvious, evolution. The Vikings held skalds in high regard and the English praised their Bards; what is Blind Guardian if not modern-day metal minstrels? See “The Bard’s Song” and “Skalds and Shadows”).