Woe, what did I just read? My Dying Bride are – allegedly – canceling all of their 2024 tour dates. And I daresay, the RMR crew much enjoyed the Maryland Death Fest’s enigmatic choice words for the band. By the time of writing this blurb, nobody really knows what the matter may be. And oddly, they did that just before their newest piece A Mortal Binding was up for release. It would at least make some sense if this were their 13th record. That honor, however, was bestowed on the 2015 piece Feel The Misery which found some enthusiastic … [...] Click to raid more! The post My Dying Bride – A ..read more

‘Tis the Month ov Doom? We’re not sure yet. But some excellent slabs of woe dropped in this short month of February. And that’s encouraging. A month that should be cold, dreary, and frozen, sublime in its desolate splendor. Fertile grounds for misery and tribulation, right? And yet, a sickly uncanny warmth has greeted our shores this early 2024. And that might be cause more depression, too, for some at least. Add to that all the geopolitical troubles afloat these days. And there you have it: Sumpy, festering, and fertile grounds for more sorrow and melancholy. So, let us quake … [...] Cli ..read more

Doom ‘n’ gloom indeed formed an important part of last year’s metal DNA. Succulent, shiny morsels like Isole and Shores of Null stand proud in that dreary light they so lustfully project. But contrite RMR truly missed some excellent fare that somehow wasted away in our swampy review pipe until it washed ashore just a few days ago. And that is Tribunal‘s The Weight of Remembrance. The piece blows every doom album we covered last year out of the water. An astute record that would have made it onto our Top 10. Would. Because now it’s too … [...] Click to raid more! The post Tribunal – The We ..read more

Loki must have that content ‘gotcha’ smirk all over his visage, the animal.1 Because the RMR crew had these senseless deliberations yet again. And it’s all about the need for a ‘worst album of the year’ list. Yeah, that kind of thing. The reply from management – as always – is the same. RMR won’t usually push negative reviews for the simple reason that manpower and time available don’t sync. There’s an abundance of material to choose from, true. But only 24 hours in a day, and we’d add the night if we had to. So, what would you … [...] Click to raid more! The post Megaton Leviathan – Magi ..read more

The 2015 record In the Shadow of the Inverted Cross immediately got our full attention. The release marked the moment when Sorcerer finally came out of hibernation for real. After five years of trying to decide what they wanted to become since 2010, the year of resurrection of the band after a long time of stop ‘n’ go and deep freeze. And that record restarted their metal machinations with a friggin’ thunderclap. They rocked on to VIP status over at the RMR review desk when the fire king was crowned. Whereas – the next album – Lamenting of the … [...] Click to raid more! The post Sorcerer ..read more

Long gone are times when we split everything between Hard Rock and its younger sibling Heavy Metal. Being a metalhead really meant you went to a Heavy Metal concert and bought comfortable vinyl in a music store. Straightforward bands like Iron Maiden, AC/DC, Krokus, Metallica, or Black Sabbath played, and you knew them all. Since then, people developed this inbred and somewhat insane need to give a new name to every friggin’ undercurrent of the metal universe. This annoying temptation to put everything into little boxes is called Divide Et Impera (divide and conquer ..read more

Runemagick, yet another band that sailed past our mighty lighthouse unnoticed a few times. And that means their two offerings since their resurrection in 2017 – Evoked from Abysmal Sleep and Into Desolate Realms – got no attention. And no doubt about it, too. RMR was a different animal back then. We had too much material on our plates to immediately realize that an age-old DM band had just returned from the undead with a new album. Runemagick proved to be pretty prolific over time, too. I counted some 13 full-length records since 1990,1 some of those signed … [...] Click to raid more! The ..read more

Elderseer. Never heard of them, I declare. And how could we? The band saw the light of day in 2017 and only released one first EP way back in 2018. And some five years later, the band’s debut Drown in the Shallowness lets us have a go at their kinda belated first issue. So, let’s don our cilice and – head over to sadboi country. A new record pregnant with potent doom-laden offerings awaits our inspection, we’re told. Just let me grab the tissues and that crusty whip before we head down there. Tearful flagellation time. The new Elderseer… [...] Click to raid more! The post Elderseer – Drow ..read more

‘Tis the Month ov Doom? We’re not sure yet. But some excellent slabs of woe dropped in this short month of February. And that’s encouraging. A month that should be cold, dreary, and frozen, sublime in its desolate splendor. Fertile grounds for misery and tribulation, right? And yet, a sickly uncanny warmth has greeted our shores this early 2024. And that might be cause more depression, too, for some at least. Add to that all the geopolitical troubles afloat these days. And there you have it: Sumpy, festering, and fertile grounds for more sorrow and melancholy. So, let us quake … [...] Cli ..read more

Stygian Crown‘s 2020 self-titled album led to a lot of head-scratching over at the RMR Review Desk. A debut full of rough ‘n’ dirty metal, stomping riffs, harsh blast beats, and the singer’s almighty roar. All the ingredients were there, with established veterans of pain and tribulation hard at work. Proto doom in action, like. And yet, this – thing often felt like a square peg in a round hole. So, here we are more or less four years later and the band’s ready to unchain their sophomore album Funeral For a King. An interment worthy of a … [...] Click to raid more! The post Stygian Crown ..read more