Summoning's synths certainly mellows their sound by a lot, it's just the production and layering of the tremolo riffs on Land of the Dead are particularly harsh for them as a band, not so much compared to other black metal. All I knew about Mic's taste was he liked some symphonic metal, so something like LotD could come across as relatively harsh if his perspective hadn't been tempered with black metal or something harsher before.
I personally find this song I'm about to rec less harsh than LotD, but it is more energetic for bm.
"The Wealth of Darkness" by Keep of Kalessin
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