The Lord of the Rings is known as an epic trilogy directed by Peter Jackson and it is one of the best movies ever to be released. However, the movies are actually inspired by J.R.R Tolkien who is the author of the Lord of The Rings novels. Many people might find it surprising to write an article about such novels, but these novels have inspired a lot of Metal bands and mostly Black Metal bands. The book’s title refers to Sauron, the Lord of the “One Ring” the ring that has power to control all other ring’s and therefore has the power to rule middle earth. Frodo the main protagonist of the novel is set out to destroy the “One Ring” that was passed on to him by his late uncle because it is revealed that the “One Ring” is what is keeping Sauron from obtaining his full power to rule middle earth.
Sauron has many servants and most of them are dark creatures such as the nine Nazgul’s, Sauron’s most powerful servants, they have an invisible form and they can’t be seen with the naked eye, they sometimes wear black robes and they are equipped with steel swords while their leader has a magical dagger otherwise known as the “Mordor-Knife” that can affect its victim with dark magic, and the orcs. There are many bands that have embraced The Lord of the Rings, mostly it’s dark side, and they refer to it as one of their influences, bands such as: Summoning, Gorgoroth, Burzum, Amon Amarth, Cirith Gorgor, Isengard and many others.
Perhaps the most notable bands listed above are Burzum and Summoning. Varg ,Burzum’s only member, takes his band’s name from LOTR. “Burzum” is actually taken from the encryption on the back of the One Ring “Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul, Ash nazg thrakatulûk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul.” This translates to “One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them, One ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.”
Burzum in this case means darkness. It is significant to also mention that Varg was in band named Uruk-hai which was named after the supreme orc race. Not only did Varg name his band after Lord of the Rings, he actually interpreted LOTR and he attributed it to the history of pagan Norway. He also gave a meaning to the famous speech on the One Ring and he attempted to figure out what the “One Ring” symbolically meant. Varg realized that the “One Ring “actually means “Time”. For time rules everyone, time find’s everyone, time brings everyone, takes everyone and binds everyone. Varg said that Sauron wanted the One Ring and he created it in order to take control of time! Therefore he would become immortal which in return would make him the most powerful being. LOTR as Varg says has a lot of pagan mythology embedded in it and it clearly depicts what happened in Norway and how the Christians invaded the Norse lands and took them by force. He actually says that the orcs and the villains in the story are actually the pagans and the heroes are the Christians.
Varg may have been influenced by LOTR but Summoning have been hailing it since their earliest demo album. Summoning is an atmospheric/epic black metal band that has been talking about LOTR themes in every album they released. Not only is the lyrical theme revolving around LOTR but also their music is epic and it reflects the grandness of LOTR. This band isn’t a typical black metal band, they are not “necro” or “kvlt” their music is actually somehow “melodic” and it seems as if there is an orchestra playing. Approximately all their albums except “Stronghold”, talks extensively about LOTR they have also featured audio samples from LOTR on their songs. They also credit J.R.R Tolkien somehow on every album! This band is sometimes referred to as “geeks making beautiful black metal “since they are Tolkien geeks and they are proud of that. Their second full-length album “Minas Morgul” is regarded by most as the first true “Summoning” album since it is clearly how summoning would sound later on and how they would become. This band is perfect, listening to it will make you really feel as if you are reading or watching LOTR. Their music is mostly soothing yet it becomes dark at times, the calmness of the music reflects the serenity of middle earth and the darkness of the music reflects the evil that surrounds middle earth.
These are two out of several bands that are influenced by LOTR. I hope I was able to shed the light on the importance of this book.
