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Ainur — War of the Jewels
(Rockshots RSCD111, 2021, CD)

by Jon Davis, Published 2021-09-19

War of the Jewels Cover art

Have you watched all three movies in The Lord of the Rings? All three parts of The Hobbit? Still hungering for more Tolkien-related content? You’ve read The Silmarillion, right? ...And wished there were movies based on it, of course. Well, there may not be any movies yet, but the Italian band Ainur has been recording albums based on The Silmarillion since 2007, a total of six CDs worth of epic symphonic rock, the musical equivalent of Peter Jackson movies. The latest installment — the first I’ve heard — is War of the Jewels, subtitled Wars of Beleriand Part I. It starts out with a narrator setting the scene, so you know they’re serious about the material. Once that’s past, we dive into heavily orchestrated rock with multiple singers, presumably representing various characters. The lyrics are in English, leaving me a little disappointed that they didn’t go all in and sing in Elvish. The words seem reasonably well-written, and never stand out as lame, which one might expect given the history of Tolkien-themed rock. Musically, it’s about what you’d expect: lots of keyboards, soaring guitars, orchestra sawing away, multiple singers, pounding drums, and the occasional metal flourish. Definitely in the same vein as the Ayreon I’ve heard. I can’t fault the performances or production, though there’s absolutely nothing original here. Every once in a while a nice touch will stand out, like the odd tone on the guitar solo in “Battle under the Stars,” but I suspect the core audience for this music isn’t too concerned about originality. They want big sounds, powerful singers, and epic melodies, and get all of that in great quantities. I’d never heard of Ainur before this album arrived, but I suspect lots of Tolkien-obsessed rock fans were already clued in to the previous albums. It’s the kind of thing I can take of leave, though only the tracks with narration really bother me. I don’t know if someone not already familiar with the book would be able to make sense of the story, aside from knowing that there are several battles, and there are rings involved. And the whole thing is way more listenable to my ears than your average Alan Simon epic.

Filed under: New releases, 2021 releases

Related artist(s): Ainur

 

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