When I spotted this in the cheapo racks, I was quite happy to find it. Although I had a general recollection of what they sounded like, it was vague at best, and I didn't really have any strong feelings about them one way or another other than remembering I thought the early Abigor stuff was much, much better. In fact, when I was shelving this, I had mistakenly thought I only owned 2 Summoning CDs, but it turns out I already had a whopping 5 discs by them. Goes to show how important they are to me.
So yeah, Minas Morgul didn't really change much for me. Not awful or lacking musical merit, just not something that resonated with me that much. I didn't find the interlude/synth/atmospheric stuff to be super appealing (I'd rather listen to old Mortiis), and its execution often feels a little jarring, like it wasn't integrated into the rest of the music as smoothly as it could be. The programmed drums aren't one of the main reasons I found this so meh, but they certainly didn't help, either.
Again, it's not awful--it's clear what they're trying to do, and they do succeed enough on "Morthond" and "Through the Forest of Dol Guldur" where I don't regret buying the album at all. I suspect if/when I ever revisit some of the releases that came after this, I'll find the non-metal elements to be incorporated better, though I suspect this will come at the expense of the black metal component in the music. But considering the rather medieval-sounding approach in its atmosphere, I think this album is completely slaughtered by the Godkiller mini-CD, or even the first Blazemth mini-CD, and a good chunk of the mid-'90s Polish BM scene as well.
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