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Runemagick: Requiem for the apocalypse
25/03/11 || Daemonomania
There comes a time or three in your life when your favorite band changes. Unless you are one of those choochbags who alter alliances every time the newest piece of trash is vomited forth from your RadioPod. As a kid, Daemo went into the world of rock by switching from something cheesy like Michael Jackson to the Doors. Then came grunge, and as a young but astute music fan Dboat went with Alice in Chains. Then came punk awareness, and I switched to the Dead Kennedys. Then came metal, and I wholeheartedly embraced Grave. Now it seems that while the genre stays the same, the particular band that most cunningly strokes my perineum does not. Runemagick, congrats. You are now my favorite band. Please enjoy the wealth, power, and respect that your current position shalt surely bestow upon thee. You rule.
Despite their newfound lofty levels of recognition and fame, each and every note of their prodigious output does not inspire assgasms. “Requiem” isn’t their best. It is clearly a transitional piece between the days of classic-style Swedish death and the beastly riffcreature that is “Darkness death doom”. Not that there aren’t some hits to be had. Like any Runemagick album, the championship guitarwork and lethal growls give power to tracks like “Temple of skin”, the stellar “On chariots to Hades”, and the melodically infused “Memorandum melancholia”.
Speaking of melody, there’s a second axeman on here who wouldn’t be present come the “DDD” era, and Fred adds to the less bludgeoning end of strings and things in a noticeable way. While the songwriting overall isn’t amazing, one wonders what an additional guitarist might have brought to the stew when Terror and the gang were firing on all cylinders. We can only imagine. And dream. And reach for the stars.
Other items to note are the three carefully placed interludes, all but one of which are somewhat worthless, and the clean vocal chanting experimentation taking place in “The secret alliance”, which rears its head years later in doomier form for stuff like “Magus of fire”. Mojjo’s drumming is not as fun-loving as it would be later either.
You can tell by the number of references to other albums I’m making that this isn’t the right set of Runetunes to start your exploration into their wonderful world of lava, venom, Hades, and winter. But with my new fave crew, you see, even their least amazing is better than the best your weak favorites could ever possibly come up with. If someone with taste as impeccable as mine has chosen them as THE ONE, quality is guaranteed. Therefore pick up everything they’ve ever released and bow down before one of Sweden’s best.
- Information
- Released: 2002
- Label: Aftermath Music
- Website: www.runemagick.se
- Band
- Nicklas “Terror” Rudolfsson: guitars
- Fredrik Johnsson: guitars
- Emma Rudolfsson: bass
- Daniel “Mojjo” Moilanen: drums
- Tracklist
- 01. Preludium
- 02. Temple of Skin
- 03. Beyond Life
- 04. On Chariots to Hades
- 05. Dawn of the Lava Aeon
- 06. One Road to Megiddo
- 07. Bells of Death
- 08. Funeral Caravan
- 09. Fields of No Life
- 10. Memorandum Melancholia
- 11. The Secret Alliance
- 12. Requiem of the Apocalypse
- 13. Landscape of Souls
