### Runemagick: Darkness death doom

#### 19/10/09 || Daemonomania

Runemagick. A bad band name. Reminds me either of some 285th level half-orc assassin shit or a device I just made up that dries fruits and vegetables with the power of the runic alphabet. Neither explanation even hints at the nature of the music at hand.

Thankfully the band is way better than their name. Waaay better. Imagine the timeless, evil brand of death/doom embodied by stalwarts Incantation spiced with the more humorous leanings of genre newcomers Acid Witch. Imagine my rod stiffening and splitting the zipper of my flimsy pants wide open. Some albums take a while to get into, whereas pieces like “Darkness death doom” just hit the right note instantly. At the end of the second track “Ancient incantations” it was pure love, baby.

Why? Because almost every second that isn’t an intro or outro on “Triple D Boobs” is fueled by the endless power of the Riff. With a capital ‘R’. Each one pummels you, lets you up for about .5 seconds, then a fresh Riff is introduced to pummel your ass even harder. Very akin to that time you got wasted at The Toolbox and woke up on the set of “Gape Ape Volume IX”. None of this is done at a breakneck pace mind you. Runemagick knows their strength lies in a slow, methodical attack. They play to their strength bigfuckentime.

So what sets the Runesters apart from the millions of other bands that play crawling death metal? Good songwriting, for one. They know when you’ve had enough of one part and lay into you with another. And each song flows well into the next. Perfect for those of us who still stupidly buy actual CDs. Second is that sense of humor I mentioned. Magick the Gathering are not so grim as to avoid random, intentionally cheesy keyboards, funny clean uuuughhhhs, or wah pedal guitar. Third is the production: grimy but not irritating. Perfect for the bursting Satanic sewage pipe of nastiness spewing forth from your speakers.

As for individual performances, this three-piece has eighteen years of experience kicking out the bloodcurdling jams…and it shows. Husband and wife team Nicklas and Emma Rudolfsson (a marriage made in awesome death/doom hell) on guitar and bass rule. The bass adds that crunchy oomph to the guitars you rarely find outside of Sweden, and I’ve already stated the hugeness of the Riffery. Mr. Terror’s low growling fucken spreads my asscheeks Grand Canyon wide. And some of you may have heard of their drummer Daniel “Mojjo” Moilanen – he was in some Project Care Bears band or something. His measured performance, with fills and excitement in all the right places, puts that extra “rune” in the tunes.

What more to say? If you like death metal where the blastbeats, pinch harmonics, and technicality are replaced with ringing bells, monk chants, and octopus-tentacle dementia inching inside your skull, Runemagick is for you. Buy it. I can’t call it a Class 6(66) as “DDD” was released in 2003, but as far as this style goes these guys and gal have very nearly achieved anti-nirvana.

- Information
- Released: 2003
- Label: Aftermath Music
- Website: www.runemagick.se
- Band
- Nicklas “Terror” Rudolfsson: vocals, guitar
- Emma Rudolfsson: bass
- Daniel “Mojjo” Moilanen: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Intro-CDXLIV
- 02. Ancient Incantations
- 03. Eyes of Kali
- 04. The Venom
- 05. Darken Thy Flesh
- 06. Doomed
- 07. Eternal Dark
- 08. DDD
- 09. Winter
- 10. Outro-444