Album Review: Loreweavers EP

Loreweavers are new band to the scene and this is their first release. In this day and age it is smart for a starting band to put something out to get people interested and if you don’t have the material, time or money for a full album an EP is definitely the way to go. Hailing from the Twin Cities, let’s get down into this then.

A reminder on how we do reviews on the show. I write my thoughts here as I listen to the album; in a sense what you’re reading is a stream of thought from yours truly. I am in no way qualified to give my opinion but as the Proprietor of the Inn I do feel duty bound to do reviews of the bands, for the bands and for our listeners as well. I also don’t appear to have a set way in how I do these reviews so expect track name, thoughts, and a score. At the end the scores are averaged to get the overall rating.

Maid of Amsterdam: The first thing right off the bat are beautiful harmonies. It’s a traditional song that isn’t rewriting the book but it is quite lovely. In this, the year of the shanty, a beautiful addition. 4

Kaer Morhen: Not familiar with the term a quick google search tells me this is a The Witcher reference. A lovely instrumental where each instrument is mixed so well, nothing appears to be overwhelming each other. It feels quite original and from what I know of The Witcher fitting. 4

Leave Her Johnny: Another traditional shanty with solid harmonies. Again it doesn’t rewrite the book on the song, just a solid song. Might not get as high of a ranking as Amsterdam just because it is a more covered song, especially this year. 3

Halflings Smoking Pipe-Weed: A song after Captain Maggs’ heart, nice to see some LOTR love being spent. I can only assume this is inspired by the songs in the books and lyrically I think it works, just not quite sure the accompanying instrumentation does. Now it could just be going for the feel of being in an Inn and folks singing along to whoever is playing music, but the instruments drown out the vocals a bit. 3

A solid debut performance from Loreweavers and if I have a complaint it’s only that outside of Kaer Morhen and the songs are so short. Just when you’re getting into it, it’s over. I am curious to see where this band goes as we have half shanty and half fantasy book inspiration. Overall a solid, well produced, first effort.