Enter the Realm of Death

The fascinating thing about Runemagick’s early records is how those were clearly death metal albums made by an ambitious and versatile band while a more simplistic form of death metal seemed like a thing of the past. Nicklas Rudolfsson released three albums in three years before he eventually switched to a more doom-oriented sound. Enter the Realm of Death is yet another step forward for this band and on paper this album should be rather tricky to pull off. We’re talking about a near 54 minute long death metal record here and it would be easy to assume the band would therefore run out of steam halfway through this album, but nothing could be further from the truth.

How Nicklas managed to improve his songcraft in such a short amount of time, I will never know but let’s just assume he’s more of a cyborg than a mortal being like the rest of us. Enter the Realm of Death sounds like The Supreme Force of Eternity Vol.2 – now with extra testosterone. Most importantly this album sounds a lot more compact and dare I’d say, confident of its self; compositions fluently change in pacing from time and the amount of variation between tracks is just right; causing a strong sense of natural cohesion rather than anything else. The band goes for the kill far more here and while there are still subtle melodic sections emerging, they never become an annoyance of any sorts - take ''Lightworld Damnation'' for instance, where riffs happily gallops back and forth between that singing guitar lead in the chorus before that huge artillery of a riff burst out with enormous velocity that would make Bolt Thrower proud...or scared.

The album opener is rather misleading, though. It’s much more one dimensional than the rest of the tracks and while I appreciate the wave of oppressive riffs, it’s not exactly a proper opener. I’d exchange ‘’Beyond (The Horizons End)’’ with it if I could, as it represents the typical early Runemagick sound much better. It’s full of twists and turns with a rather ominous feeling to it, creating the image of a post-apocalyptic world where no life dwells. While the emphasis clearly lies on Nicklas’ skullcrushing riffwork, it’s still rather diverse and colourful and couldn’t be further from the one-dimensional guitar playing that often dominates certain death metal albums (not that there’s anything wrong with that) while avoiding the plodding approach of The Supreme Force of Eternity. ‘’Abyss of Desolation’’ gets closer to the black metal territory during its chorus with an eerie tremolo riff hovering around the wailing vocals while ‘’Dwellers Beyond Obscurity’’ reminds me of something Tiamat could have released between their debut and The Astral Sleep. It’s barbaric yet features a more distinct thrash-inspired riffing style Johan Edlund embraced on the latter.

Despite the rhythm guitars being the main focus of this release, lead guitars and keyboards still have their moments of glory from time to time. The tragic guitar passage of ‘’Dwellers Beyond Obscurity’’ sounds like a tribute to those who died heroically before the track picks up again with a serious onslaught of thrashing riffs while ‘’Dreamvoid Serpent’’ is more on the dense side yet come across as a huge wall of sound. How the keys announce themselves near the end has to some of the most divine things I've ever heard; adding a real dramatic feeling to the track in a non-pretentious manner.

Whereas other bands would take death metal in a more technical and brutal direction, Runemagick would keep their style simple and (relatively) accessible. Overall, this should have been a breakthrough album of the band, but considering the time it came out, it’s no surprise that it didn’t. Regardless of that, it’s definitely something that should appeal to fans that like their death metal familiar enough yet seek something that clearly stands on its own.

Remember the time you first heard Bolt Thrower and Grave and said music cannot be heavier and more mind blowing than this? Well, this band is here to prove you wrong. Ladies and gentlemen, Enter The Realm of Death… and Doom.

I had this band’s 2005 release “Envenom” which I rejected saying it was just another death/doom record. But now that I’ve rediscovered them and realized how much variety and quantity they have to offer, I must say, I’m late and feeling quite stupid and regretful.

You increase the number of slower sections in the aforementioned bands and this is what you’ll get, rest of the characteristics remaining same, like the uncountable number of skull crushing riffs, or the equally heavy, pounding and shattering work on the drums. This would be one of the few bands that are able to retain their aggression and brutality even during the slower more atmospheric sections; an area where most bands usually end up sounding dull and middle-aged.

The vocals and guitars have an unbelievably dark & gloomy feel to them, which is only amplified and inflamed by the keyboard overtones, the outstanding bass lines and other atmospheric effects which have been incorporated to ensure perfection and flawlessness in the grimness of each and every song. The best example of this would be the title track. There just aren’t any compromises, which makes this album a class apart. Nicklas Rudolfsson has made riffs worth a discography and used them on this one album which is not even an hour long. That’s more than enough proof of how non-monotonous this is and how it is probably a step ahead of its peers.

This is a Doom/Death band, of the highest fucking order. I'd try to give you two bands combined that would be an accurate representation of Runemagick's sound (Bolt Thrower+Sabbath/Cathedral maybe?), but as I listen to Enter the Realm of Death, I'd prefer to just bang my head clean off.

Seriously folks, you just don't know how fucking good this is, and I'm only on the second track!! ENTER! THE REALM OF DEATH! A killer chorus, followed by some badass riffs, generally low in pitch and tremelopicked as is common in death metal. However, as I said, this is not a death metal band, so while there's the tremelopicking common for death metal, it's not being played in in a chaotic fashion like you see in most death metal. This is played in a slower moving, oppressive fashion, as is custom for doom metal. Similar to a bulldozer: not too fast, but you can't move out of it's path to avoid being maimed. I mean come on, there's even an Ozzy style laugh in the title track.

Onto Longing For Hades. Fuckin' A, this is just oppressing! This shit doesn't even need lyrics, just screams from the war pigs (her-her). But it does have lyrics, and of course they fit the doom/death oriented music quite well. How i never heard about these guys from many raving metalheads is beyond me. These guys should be HUGE in the underground. This is amongst the most underrated bands I can think of.

Dwellers Beyond Obscurity continues the assault, and even thrashes a bit! Some of the riffwork definitely reminds me of Carcass and Behemoth, besides the doom side of it. At 3.27, body parts go flying, in slow motion, one of them being your head, still attempting to headbang your neck into peices. Points off for the lame ending, it just doesn't work.

Abyss of Desolation, cool melodic intro, good harmonies, and now you bang. This is the ballad of the album, and it rocks and has killer melodies and blah blah blah.

Still think this has nothing to do with doom? Listen to Beyond (The Horizon's End) and say it again. I didn't think so. Hear the whispers? That's death approaching, but don't pay any attention, just headbang, you'll be dead before the arrival. This song's just over six minutes, and completely holds my attention in its entirety. Did i mention the tasteful use of synth? Silly me.

I don't want to waste any more precious time, the rest of the album kicks all the amount of ass that the first half does. And don't even think about missing the last track! The only bad things about this album are lack of solos (7 points) and the one bad ending (4 points). But these are trifles in the shadow of such excellence. Download it, buy it, just hear this one way or another.