A new spell cast by Runemagick.
For this fifteenth album, titled After Chaos: Nocturnal Vigil, Nicklas Rudolfsson (vocals/all instruments, Dödsvaka, Domedag, The Funeral Orchestra, Necrocurse…) enlisted the help of Hammerheart Records, but also Dísa Draugurinn (shamanic vocals, Draugurinn, Turdus Merula).
The album kicks off with After Chaos, its longest track, and the impression is relatively straightforward: the musician doesn’t just invite us to listen to his work, but rather to join him in his trance- a blend of Folk music that later gives way to more traditional Doom/Death elements. You can feel how the effects reinforce the heavy, oppressive sound, coupled with screams that are at times eerie and at times more Gothic Metal-oriented, dominating the composition with a haunting rhythm that builds to a climax, leading into the admittedly shorter but equally trippy Rune Magick Unbound and its mysterious effects, which allow the jagged riffs to add a bit of variety. The vocals are also rawer on this track, reinforcing the direct nature of the rhythm section and its occasional bursts of acceleration that contrast with the musician’s incantations, and even though there’s a sense of intensification before the few final words, The Nocturnal Vigil returns to Pagan tones for a brief moment before Doom’s dark roots of take hold once more. The sound returns to its signature morbid, slow, and oppressive tone as the vocalist introduces some unexpected elements – such as more dissonant patterns that carry our minds toward a requiem before the hazy tones resurface with Urðr’s Cosmic Weave and its imposing approach. Once again, we notice massive tones corrupted by soaring harmonics that stay true to the Old School atmosphere and its sometimes epic but always unsettling proportions, which draw us all the way to Abyssal Continuum, where the musician opts for a gentler approach to introduce the track before unleashing rougher riffs. Note the two-part intro, followed by a more energetic, wave-like tone where the harmonics become more haunting in contrast to Formless Dawn, which creates a hypnotic echo to better establish its cadaverous heaviness. The track remains hazy and unsettling throughout, occasionally prompting more movement from the drums, but once again, the finale catches up with us and shatters the rhythm before The Vast That Knows No Shape takes over, introducing calmer, more stripped-down elements, almost mystical in their energy. A Folk-inspired touch emerges a little past the halfway point of the track, once again interrupting our progression and allowing the guest artist to appear, pulling us out of that world before plunging us back into it with Into the Endless Continuance, the final track, which showcases these spellbinding ritualistic tones, taking on almost Drone-like qualities as the cymbals ring out between the choruses, transforming into a dark, Pagan ceremony before returning to suffocating Doom/Death Metal for a long while, then the distortion fades away one last time.
Once again, Runemagick opens the doors to a dreamlike yet highly inaccessible universe that will prove too much for newcomers. Regular listeners will let themselves be carried away by After Chaos: Nocturnal Vigil like souls bound for another world.
80/100
