The masters of heavy metal, pagan, folk and melodic death metal, ELVENKING, celebrate their return to fantasy with their epic, new album “Reader Of The Runes – Rapture”, out now on AFM Records!
The band’s eleventh studio album marks the sequel to their 2019 magnum opus “Reader of the Runes – Divination”. Yet, on “Rapture”, Elvenking set sail to horizons more distant than ever before, boldly taking the world by storm with their quintessentially unique approach to heavy, powerful music. As guitarist Aydan and vocalist Damna recently confirmed, “Part 2 is darker, it needed to be tragic and violent and this gave us the chance to fully breathe the soundscape we already had in mind as we started to write songs in early 2020. We feel that with this album, we have cast a milestone and set a further limit in what we can do by mixing wisely what we deeply love in metal. We are very satisfied with all the shades that compose these eleven songs; altogether they make a canvas we are very proud of.”
To celebrate their brand new album in glorious style, today, Elvenking are presenting us a final single and lyric video for the epic anthem “Herdchant”! The clip is now streaming here:
“HERDCHANT is the last single out of our new album “ROTR Rapture”.” The band comments. “It perfectly represents the two souls of Elvenking: on one side the love for all the great Metal of the 90s, in this case the melodic death metal from The Gothenburg scene and on the other, the traditional folkloristic music with its magical and dark atmospheres. That is why it is a perfect single to introduce the listeners to the darker chapter of this trilogy also thanks to the grand epic chorus that embodies the most tragic and solemn vein of our sound.”
Ever since their inception in 1997, Elvenking mastered their way to their own identity with courage and bravado, leaving behind the shackles of genres step by step before they truly broke out with their 2014 monument “The Pagan Manifesto”. Elvenking have been defying all genres, now feeling quite at home in their very own enchanted realm. With “Rapture”, the Italian collective delivers part two of their monumental “Reader of the Runes” trilogy, and an epic metal quest of woe and despair, wrought with mysterious figures, dark magic and an altogether mesmerizing autumnal flair reminiscent of a forest glade during an Indian Summer. It’s more than just a metal album. It’s a moving story set to fabulous songs, bridging the gap between fantasy and reality. Many times before, Elvenking have weaved powerful magic into the world. This time, they truly came into their own, wresting their best effort yet from a global pandemic.
“Reader Of The Runes – Rapture” was written between 2020 and 2022, and was recorded between May and October 2022 by the band and renowned producer Scott Atkins (Cradle of Filth, Behemoth) who also took over mixing and mastering duties.
Out now on AFM Records, you can order your album copy at THIS LOCATION
