No, Enya's not really my style. I like Howard Shore's score to the LOTR movies, but in general I'm a fan more of rock 'n' roll and heavy metal music. Not quite LOTR-related.

Au Contraire Mon Frere, Heavy Metal is intricately linked to LotR. Led Zeppelin did the Misty Mountain Hop, and I think some other Tolkien inspired tunes. A lot of Prog Rock is inspired by LotR, and numerous Heavy metal albums from the 70s are adorned with Tolkien cover art, Usually Black Riders .

I can't remember the names of the bands for certain, but I think some of them included Molly Hatchet, Uriah Heep, and possibly Black Sabbath. I'd have to double check my friends vinyl collection though, the next time I see him.

GB

On the topic of Enya and Howard Shore, I thoroughly enjoy "May It Be" by Enya on the Lord of the Rings Soundtrack... great song! However, I have all of Howard Shore's soundtracks which sometimes send me chills, especially "The Breaking of The Fellowship". Howard Shore incorporates flutes and pipes great, giving off a sort of 'Hobbit" tone, which is what you would think. He also knows how to bring in strong brass and drums for Mordor and Isengard, giving a sense of power and darkness .

I have listened to more Enya besides this and it's not nearly as relaxing and enjoyable as "May It Be". I agree with Eldorion, mostly .

Is anyone a fan of John Martyn, died recently but great artist, not music of my time though.

Thanks for reminding me about the connection between Tolkien and Heavy Metal GB . Speaking of which, supposedly the Black Sabbath song The Wizard is based on Gandalf, do you know if that's true?

I can definitely see the Black Riders connection. Also have you ever heard of Cirith Ungol or Amon Amarth? I have a few songs by the former and they're not bad in my opinion. This also reminded me of Burzum. Links about them to follow (since I already used my allotment for this post).

EDIT: Can't say I've heard of him, B'arelyn.

Cirith Ungol, the band.

Some information about Burzum. I can't say I've actually listened to their music though, mainly because of the crimes they're associated with. You can also Wikipedia them, they have an entry there.

Holy Cow, Burzum sounds extremely outrageous Eldorion. I gotta love the Tolkien quote the critic of Burzum finished up with . I vaguely remember hearing some Cirith Ungol.

I'm not certain about the Sabbath Song, The Wizard. It could be Gandalf, but without reading the lyrics I can't be sure. It could be about Aleister Crowley, a favoured topic of Ozzy and Sabbath.

And sorry B'arelyn, I haven't heard of that last artist you mentioned either .

GB

They are pretty outrageous as far as I can tell on quite a few levels. Their lack of understanding of Tolkien is probably the least of them. I think of them as the dark side of Tolkien-influenced music but I prefer some good Zeppelin any day.

I hadn't actually thought of The Wizard being about Aleister Crowley, but that's a very good point. I shall have to Google this.

I am quite surprised you haven't heard of him GB, (no offence Eldo but I don't think your english ) he was a prominant figure in rythm and Blues, did most of his stuff in the 70s and 80s. He was famous for having a guitar, of which he played with live, that had a pick up stuck with duct tape over the sound hole on an acoustic guitar (I beleive he was one of the first people ever to do that in a live performance, using the sounds created from acoustic and being able to project the sound further). His improvisation skills were really something. I could amagine his earliar stuff in an LotR film shot in a different style. Hers a link to a last.fm page on him.

http://www.last.fm/music/John+Martyn