Marko Hietala – Roses From The Deep (2025) – Review

Marko Hietala - Roses From the Deep - Album Cover

Marko Hietala, one of the only artists out there holding the RMR crew’s unwavering respect. He – of course – will remain forever famous as one of Nightwish‘s main pillars. Until he chose to retire from the band back in early 2021, that is, done with a statement that made for somewhat grim reading.

Now, in the meantime, Hietala popped up here and there in a variety of venues and roles. Raskasta Joulua’s 2022 x-mas piece was – surprisingly – the first time he reappeared on our radar already. And this told us that he definitely would stay … [...] Click to raid more!

Saor – Amidst the Ruins (2025) – Review

Saor - Amidst The Ruins - Album Cover

Looks like this will be Nordic week. The RMR crew just covered some Scandinavian mystique. And now there’s a different North on the menu a tad more to the West. We’re talking about the good ol’ Scottish warriors that used to howl down South to torment the Aenglish beyond that big wall. A modern and metal-laden version of them, more or less.

You guessed it. Saor‘s the name and their newest piece Amidst The Ruins is currently on the chopping block over at the RMR Review Desk. The band behind Andy Marshall with an affinity for standing stones … [...] Click to raid more!

Ereb Altor – Hälsingemörker (2025) – Review

Ereb Altor - Hälsingemörker - Album Cover

At first, the RMR crew froze in place. Ereb Altor‘s newest and best Hälsingemörker sports a whopping 21 minutes of extra airtime over Vargtimman. In other words, the band went from a perfectly timed piece to bloatware jungle camp. And there are two lines of thought to this. Either they completely lost it in the self-edit department, or their song-smithing skills increased in spades to spare us from withering away from sheer boredom. So, what’s it gonna be?

The only way to find out is to give this piece here a few spins, painful as they may be. … [...] Click to raid more!

Mea Culpa (‘Ah! Ca ira!’) – Gojira wins the metal battle over at the Grammies!

Gojira - Grammy Awards 2025 - Mea Culpa (Ah, ça ira)
© Grammy Awards 2025

It’s funny how things sometimes work out. Back in July 2024, Gojira together with opera singer Marina Viotti mounted a furious and pretty stellar metal attack based on the old revolutionary song Ah! Ca Ira! at the opening ceremonies of the Paris Olympics. RMR offered a few choice words not only for the outstanding performance of the musicians themselves but also for the often astonishingly disrespectful comments issued by the mainstream press and the somewhat creaky arrangement of the event.

Now much to this crew’s delight, Joe Duplantier‘s boyz, Viotti, and composer – Victor [...] Click to raid more!