Amorphis – Borderland (2025) – Review

Amorphis - Borderland - Album Cover

Halo still ranked pretty well over at the RMR Review Desk, despite pretty severe reservations from some crewmembers over here. In a way, Amorphis‘ (in)famous trilogy seemed to suffer from overreach at the end. A form of fatigue brought about by too much mandated playtime and not enough good ideas to fill the void with real mana.

And who can blame them, really? The sturdy roughy Under The Red Cloud and the feisty piece Queen of Time must have sucked the oxygen out of the songsmithing atelier. So, I reckon, the last one of the trio had trouble really … [...] Click to raid more!

Paradise Lost – Ascension (2025) – Review

Paradise Lost - Ascension - Album Cover

Is it fall yet? Not quite. But doom ‘n’ gloom promptly appears on the menu again. And this time, wistful roaring reaches us from the cold and windy island nation of the UK.

Together with their brethren from Bradford, Paradise Lost pretty much set the gold standard for all things doom over the years. Especially their return to in-yer-face tearful woe with The Plague Within indeed cemented this act’s place in Doom’s Hall ov Fame.

So, the band’s 17th full-length record Ascension finally appeared on our mighty radar. An impressive feat that not many bands managed to achieve so

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Video: Serpent on the Cross, an invocation by Paradise Lost!

Paradise Lost - Serpent on the Cross - Video Cover

Ah, damn. Vacations make you miss things. When good ol’ RMR was pounding the sand and playing with giant squids, Paradise Lost here snuck in a clip right from Ze Kingdom Ov Doom. Already the title, Serpent on the Cross, should have jolted us awake through esoteric osmosis or something. But it didn’t, and here we are, late already for Ascension, the record dropping tomorrow.

The RMR crew was kind of wondering where PL would take this after Obsidian left us in 2020. And if Serpent on the Cross is any indicator, the going just got better. The … [...] Click to raid more!

Traversus Navigate – What?

Traversus - Navigate - Album Cover

Alright, RMR’s pickup of progressive pieces has been slow in 2025, to put it mildly. So, better start late than never. Spotlight on, pointed directly on the Dutch act Traversus. Navigate is their newest EP, and it’s a strange animal. Not weird in any confused way, but it takes some chutzpah to mix Hard Rock with Progressive Metal and a ton of Gothic Metal in the fray. That’s dangerous waters with a lot of unseen reefs to navigate through.

And whilst not going there outright, Traversus navigates pretty closely to the likes of Haken and early Leprous. And … [...] Click to raid more!