“The End of the Dark Ages” is the second album of Dagorlad, a two-piece band from Belgium. Not unlike their countrymen “Infernal Beauty” and to a lesser extent “Ancient Rites”, these gentlemen know how to put atmosphere in their music. Listening to the album, you can almost smell the damp haunted swamps and majestic dark woods. “The End of the Dark Ages” tells the story of Mallek, a man from the woods, who is chosen by the goddess Alean to fight against the evil emperor Zul’Dhar. To aid his quest Alean gives him the powers of the four elements (Earth, Fire, Water and Life). With these powers Mallek is capable of raising an army of the dead, which he leads to the battlefield to face the armies of Zul’Dhar in an apocalyptic battle to end the dark ruler’s reign of terror. It is clear that Dagorlad enjoys a good fantasy story (The name Dagorlad comes from the famous “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy by J.

R.R. Tolkien, in which it means “Battle Plains”) and I enjoyed it too. It has similarities with the books of for example Hobb, Feist and of course Tolkien but with its own twist. But more important is the music. Dagorlad plays Dark Atmospheric Medieval Metal as they call it themselves, placing them in a line with Summoning, Infernal Beauty and the mid-tempo Bal Sagoth songs. That means long melodic songs with bombastic keyboards, trumpets and flutes, giving it a very ancient feeling that is furthermore enforced with samples taken from nature itself. In the person of AOD they have a mighty storyteller who has also a decent black metal scream. Count Zaroff is responsible for the guitars, bass, keys and programming the drum computer. Together they created an album, which I can listen to all evening because it’s really easy listening yet dark enough to satisfy any metalhead.