I wanted to go to Finland today. Instead I ended up in Sweden. And in my library of strange sounds and noises, Runemagick reappeared. Runamagick, though most certainly unheard of for most, has an extensive catalogue of recordings. First on Century Media, later on Aftermath Records, that I briefly discussed in AOTHD #15. The advent of home studios made them able to release a stream of albums, free from the recording industry's demands. And it shows. They used to have a cartoonish image and I'm pretty sure Century wanted a more polished death metal sound in order to follow the trends at that time. This is however doom in the traditional vein with a hint of their death metal vibe. Just a hint.

Runemagick -Darkness Death Doom (2003)

Seriously! To write about this particular album turned out to be much harder than I thought. It is conseptual and everything fits together. So there is only highlights with some highlights brighter than others. I'd like to point out "Eyes of Kali", "The Venom", "Doomed", Eternal Dark", "DDD" and "Winter" if I had to choose. "DDD" is kind of special since it has oboe added to it. Something I have never encountered in this genre before.

This is a conceptual piece. The edition I have even had a extra disc with aditional material, mostly soundscapes. It makes it a huge release, but I left the second part out. I think it was leftover material they just threw in and made a limited first edition.

From intro to outro, this is a solid piece from the swedish riff-machine Nichlas Rudolfsson, main man and vocalist. Since I have most of their releases, I can safely say this is the most thought through. And it has a nice production. Not too polished, not too crude.

Phew. Three solid days of writers block just fell off my shoulders.

Album of the Day #17 Runemagick -Darkness Death Doom

Runemagick -Darkness Death Doom (2003)