Runelord - A Message from the Past

Share this on Facebook | Share this on Twitter

Some bands are researching on the past to breed a new way for the old forms of Metal. Once more: there’s no problem in doing things in such way, but you must be yourself (or, in other words, you can’t live off of the ancient bands’ work, you can’t copy). And there are times when some bands do very good albums, and other times not as good as they think. But the duet RUNELORD, from Sweden, made a good work on “A Message from the Past”. It’s a Pagan Metal album, or to be clear, a traditional Heavy Metal band using pagan themes and some melodies that can remind of something of it, but their identity is strongly rooted on German traditional Heavy Metal music, especially on old ACCEPT albums. No, it’s not a problem, for they have personality to do things on their own. And it’s truly good, although it’s nothing new at all.

Fredrik Holm and Cederick Forsberg produced “A Massage from the Past”, and they preferred a crude approach to put the sonority a bit more organic (you’ll hear that there’s no rhythm guitar playing during the solos). Of course it could be done in a better way, but it’s not bad and doesn’t turn things into an incomprehensible mass of sound. Ten good songs are presented to us all. But the brutal grasping weight of “Bloodline of the Berserk” (that shows very good guitars and a fine chorus), the sharp guitar riffs of the charming “Purified Hatred”, the strong and bold rhythmic work of “Heathen Religion” (this one will remind you of some past works from ACCEPT and GRAVE DIGGER), the catchy raw energy presented on “Valkyries’ Eternal Winter”, and the aggressive bitter melodies of “A Message from the Past” and “Beyond the Epos” are the best of them.

The band is pretty good, and I hope they won’t stop with only one album.

Originality: 8
Songwriting: 9
Memorability: 8
Production: 8