Battle at the Bridge of Khazad​-​dûm Review

Band	Grimdor
Album	Battle at the Bridge of Khazad​-​dûm
Type	Single
Released	February 19, 2019
Length	05:29

Reviewer :  KaroshiMetal         Rating :  100 / 100

While most Dungeon Synth artists tend to lean towards a somewhat more clean quality, there can be certain moments where a piece of such musical art provides themselves raw lo-fi quality and this release happens to be one of them. Ever since I first came across this band known as Grimdor, I easily recognized it as one of those bands with a unique sound that maintains it's raw atmosphere. The whole concept theme this band goes for is entirely related to J.R.R. Tolkien, and this release remains true to that theme with a special instrumental piece.

"Battle at the Bridge of Khazad​-​dûm" is a 1-track single that is entirely an instrumental piece, with a pure raw lo-fi ambient effect that clocks just over 5 minutes. The length of this sole track is enough to please the ears and minds of listeners, as it provides a slow sound that easily places them in a trance state of a grim yet soothing atmosphere. The track begins with a low buzzing effect that is very reminiscent of a guitar feedback, switching up notes for a few good moments. This lasts for about 27 seconds until the keyboard arrives to play alongside, providing low minor melancholic-like notes that is reminiscent of a horn instrument. It gives it's series of notes for a little while until it is brushed aside by a more gentle keyboard sound that maintains it's own set of notes for only a short time. This section of the song has a soothing atmospheric mindset that can possibly make the listener imagine they are in a crystal-like cavern until this is swept away by another different keyboard effect that has a choir-like sound as it is accompanied by slow tambourine beats. Even though it's very obvious to tell the buzzing effect is very lo-fi, the production quality of the actual keyboard sounds along with the use of the tambourine have a somewhat cleaner quality.

The entire performance of all these keyboard sounds keep a steady tempo with the raw buzzing effect as they eventually come to a pause after 2 minutes have passed. The entire track at this point loops itself with the very same series of melancholic minor notes with the very same formula of keyboard sounds in order. Horns, crystal-like sounding keyboard, choir, tambourine... all restarting themselves in the same order just like earlier as the raw buzzing effect remains as the main highlight of the track until it comes to a sudden end with no fade out effect or a unique note performance to serve as the outro. While this may sound very repetitive overall, the composition this single delivers maintains it's comfort with it's series of different keyboard sounds and background effects as already pointed out.

"Battle at the Bridge of Khazad​-​dûm" is an instrumental ambient piece that easily captures the moment with it's distinct concept. The overall performance with it's use of unique sound pieces is something that's enough to put the listeners at ease and have them considered putting this piece of art on repeat.