Review of the Album "Third Age of the Sun" by the Band Battlelore

Based on how solid the album Sword’s Song is, Finnish band Battlelore deserves more praise and feedback. Their 2005 album called Third Age of the Sun starts with a beautiful instrumental song that has a strange title but the song has the sound of rain as well as dialogue in Finnish. Then comes the heavy song called Storm of the Blades. The song is basically about a king that demands loyalty, strength, and honor from the people in his kingdom. In this king’s mind, any warrior or person that fails in their task of being victorious in battle, they will be of no use for this king. If they return victorious, then they will be granted their freedom again. On the album doing the growling male vocals is Tomi Mykkanen.

By the name of this band, some of you may assume that Battlelore is a folk metal band. But this band is a mixture of Gothic and symphonic metal with harsh vocals that could be interpreted as being death metal vocals.

The third song called Ghan of the Woods is a song that tells the story of ancient peoples that love among the trees with Mother Earth taking care of her child. Meanwhile, the vocals are even harsher in this album compared to 2003’s Sword’s Song. Trollshaws is a song that is about a group of beasts or trolls that have the ability to really put elves and dwarfs in danger. Whether they hide in the hills or mountains, elves and dwarfs will have a very hard time evading these trolls. Elves of Luva sounds a bit like early The 3^rd and the Mortal as the atmosphere is set for what is a soothing performance by vocalist Kaisa Jouhki. The song is a story about someone that hears enchanting songs from the seashore. The water is so calm as she walks through a path to a place that she had not seen. The song with its acoustic guitar dominated feel may just as well be influenced by Lacuna Coil of Italy (think of the albums In a Reverie and Unleashed Memories).

Thousand Caves is a song that talks about the underworld that is inhibited by elves. The band’s lyrical themes center around fantasy and mythical creatures or those creatures that you will see in fantasy style board games such as Talisman. The Talisman is a sort of very important treasure that symbolizes and shows victory as a result of being brave and courageous. Of Orcs and Elves is a song that tells a story about the first born inhabitants of an ancient land at first being not corrupted as they have hearts of love. But when the orcs attacked the land attempting to poison the minds and hearts of the elves.

However, Third Age of the Sun is below the album Sword’s Song in terms of the songwriting and the lyrics are harder to interpret. Other than that it is a good album overall.