Thorondir – Wächter des Waldes (2025) – Review

Thorondir - Wächter des Waldes - Album Cover

Forest Metal is on the menu again. I don’t know what it is with the Bavarian and Austrian wooded areas. They seem to inspire a ton of Extreme Metal bands that bemoan their majestic landscapes and mystical origins. And I reckon that the album art again covers the essence of where this is going pretty well already. The pagan lore still seems to be firmly entrenched in the local populace over there. And that, even if the Holy Catholic Church tried to align the region to the cranky whims of the nailed god for too many centuries. Just look at … [...] Click to raid more!

Vintersorg – Vattenkrafternas Spel (2025) – Review

Vintersorg - Vattenkrafternas Spel - Album Cover

I reckon we’ll need a lamestream n00b list for 2025 as well. Vintersorg, the band around one Andreas Hedlund, has been active since 1996. That’s not quite a lifetime ago, unlike other bands out there. But it is a whopping three decades of faithful service to further the mighty metal lore. And they had an undeniable influence on Northern atmospherics in metal, no contest.

The band sometimes showed its colors at the RMR office tower, straight out of the Northern lights at the outer edges of our aural range. But they never quite made it onto the review … [...] Click to raid more!

Ba’al – The Fine Line Between Heaven and Here (2025) – Review

Ba'al - The Fine Line between Heaven and Here - Album Cover

Ba’al‘s 2024 EP Soft Eyes already left quite an impression on the RMR crew here. Melancholy-ridden, harsh Post Black and Black Metal riding down our earphones like there’s no tomorrow. This wild and pretty unusual concoction rocked rapidly to the top of the list of our frugal offering of last year’s shorties and EPs.1 And this came with a promise of more to come soon.

So, sure enough, here they are with a new rough-hewn and doom-laden piece unwieldily called The Fine Line Between Heaven and Here. This is yet another band unconcerned with precise genres. And … [...] Click to raid more!

Sun After Dark – Tatkraft (2025) – Review

Sun After Dark - Tatkraft - Album Cover

Imagine a post-apocalyptic world where bleak is the new normal. Foggy visions in a frozen landscape chase each other like so many icicles lined up in a row.

This sounds as oxymoronic as the band moniker Sun After Dark. And perhaps they should have called their outfit simply ‘Night’ or something. But the metaphor perfectly describes what went through the RMR crew’s mutual minds when listening to the piece.

So, meet Tatkraft1 and let its garbled waffling baffle your inner self. But stow these pills firmly away first. This whole chebang already sounds like substance abuse in sound

[...] Click to raid more!