Ominous Ruin – Requiem (2025) – Review

Posted on 9 May 2025 by RockmusicRaider — Leave a reply

Ha! 2025 didn’t yield its usual crop of brutal Death Metal pieces yet and we’re behind on quota. Management is fuming and will be cutting benefits if the review desk won’t get a move on.

So, luckily, our scouts found an obscure Extreme Metal band from the Bay Area that stubbornly stuck to the smelly underbelly of the alloy-laced underground. Meaning, despite endlessly riffing about stages and soundscapes, they didn’t quite get to that breakthrough yet. The famed metal nirvana many a band attempted to reach but few ever did.

So, let’s explore. Ominous Ruin state that they did something … [...] Click to raid more!

Khôra – Ananke (2025) – Review

Posted on 3 May 2025 by RockmusicRaider — Leave a reply

The RMR crew just sat transfixed as Timaeus, Khôra‘s 2020 debut album, roared out of our music machine some 5 years ago. The find was some heavy-duty Extreme Metal prone to shoving its gritty dissonance straight down your gullet. And that, combined with a certain weird cheekiness, made our metal day back in time.

So, Oleg I., or Ole as he calls himself these days, is back with more Khôra fare. Yet, the new piece comes with a totally new lineup, apart from the old master. And that makes us pose the age-old question. Will they be able … [...] Click to raid more!

Eluveitie – Ànv (2025) – Review

Posted on 30 April 2025 by RockmusicRaider — Leave a reply

Once upon a time, Chrigel Glanzmann had a great idea. And that was to merge Pagan Folk with Death Metal. Not many expected this to work, but after a fair amount of trial and error, he succeeded, and Eluveitie was the end product that stuck with the audience.

Since the zine’s inception, the RMR crew covered a whopping six full-length records of this band. Out of which Everything Remains (as it never was) and – strangely – Evocation II – Pantheon fared best. Let’s be clear, lavish coverage such as this for one band is pretty unusual @ RMR. And … [...] Click to raid more!

Ancient Bards – Artifex (2025) – Review

Posted on 25 April 2025 by RockmusicRaider — Leave a reply

Italy. An astonishing haven for all sorts of metal shenanigans found up and down the famous boot-shaped peninsula. The RMR crew found a full-blown panoply of metal delights, out of which Power and Symphonic Metal grab themselves an important chunk.

Around 15% of all Italian records covered since the zine’s inception wander about these two genres. Put differently, Power Metal has become one of the main staples of Italy’s cheesiest metal soundscapes. And RMR stepped right into it. Gunk or geekery? We might need some Artifex to pull ourselves out of this.

Ancient Bards‘ 2019 piece Origine didn’t quite … [...] Click to raid more!