April 28, 2023 will see the masters of heavy metal, pagan, folk and melodic death metal, ELVENKING, return to fantasy with their epic, new album “Reader Of The Runes – Rapture”, through AFM Records! The band’s eleventh studio album marks the sequel to their 2019 magnum opus “Reader of the Runes – Divination”.

Following previously-released album singles, “Rapture” and the epic anthem “The Hanging Tree”, today, Elvenking have premiered a music video for “Bride Of Night”, featuring former DRACONIAN vocalist Heike Langhans! Says the band:

“We are proud to present our new song  and video “Bride of Night”. It surely represents the more melodic side of our sound, yet dark and melancholic. We know that a lot of our fans love this side of Elvenking, so this is also a gift to you. “Reader of the Runes – Rapture” will collect all of the shades of our sound from the more aggressive ever, to songs like Bride of Night so, by listening to the entire album you will travel through a multitude of nuances and atmospheres – we cannot wait for you to hear it in all its epicness!

Heike Langhans offered her beautiful voice in the chorus backing Damna vocals. The amazing video is once again directed by Matteo Ermeti who did with us “Silverseal” and he couldn’t better envision the story – a glimpse of painful romance that captures one of the chapters of the story.”

On their forthcoming album, 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 commented, “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.”

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.

Set to be released on April 28, 2023 through AFM Records, the album pre-sale is available at THIS LOCATION!

Tracklist:

1. Rapture
2. The Hanging Tree
3. Bride of Night
4. Herdchant
5. The Cursed Cavalier
6. To the North
7. Covenant
8. Red Mist
9. Incantations
10. An Autumn Reverie
11. The Repentant

April 28, 2023 will see the masters of heavy metal, pagan, folk and melodic death metal, Elvenking, return to fantasy with their epic, new album “Reader Of The Runes – Rapture”, through AFM Records! The band’s eleventh studio album marks the sequel to their 2019 blockbuster record “Reader of the Runes – Divination”.

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 revealed, “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.”

But give ear, following the previously-released, first album single “Rapture”, today, Elvenking premiered a haunting lyric video for the epic track “The Hanging Tree”! Watch the new clip here:

Get the song on all digital platforms HERE!

Says the band: “The Hanging Tree is a song that sets a violent darker tone as we dive deep into the core of the story narrated in the second part of the “Reader of the Runes” trilogy. If “Rapture” was more epic, slow paced and filled with many different shades and textures, “The Hanging Tree” is a merciless fast cavalcade that goes straight to the point with a heavy fast riffing, melodic yet aggressive vocals, big choirs in the chorus, two insane guitar solos and a folk break in the middle that our dear EK fans will definitely love. It will surely be a highlight in our forthcoming live shows.”

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.
Set to be released on April 28, 2023 through AFM Records, the album pre-sale is available at THIS LOCATION!

Tracklist:

1. Rapture
2. The Hanging Tree
3. Bride of Night
4. Herdchant
5. The Cursed Cavalier
6. To the North
7. Covenant
8. Red Mist
9. Incantations
10. An Autumn Reverie
11. The Repentant

A return to fantasy: On April 28, 2023, ELVENKING will continue their epic quest with “Reader Of The Runes – Rapture”, the sequel to their 2019 blockbuster record “Reader of the Runes – Divination”! Forging a potent magic stronger than ever by evoking the essence of heavy metal, pagan metal, folk and melodic death metal, 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. Today, the band has shared a music video for first single, the album title track “Rapture”.

“After three years of absence, we decided to give our fans a taste of the album that could be as plenty as possible.“ Guitarist Aydan and vocalist Damna comment. “Rapture” is one of the longest tracks of the lot and we feel it has all the epicness, the tragic nature and most of the nuances that the album incorporates in its entire length, so this is what we wanted to offer to our listeners as a first glimpse of “Reader of the Runes – Rapture”. Also, lyrically it is the perfect link between the previous chapter and this one, as it is the Introduction. The story opens on the Reader of the Runes himself and we read about his mindset and plans before the climax that will be described in the rest of the songs.”

Get the song on all digital platforms HERE!

Ever since their inception in 1997, the band 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”. For four albums now, Elvenking have been defying all genres, 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 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.

“How would we have approached musically the second chapter of the “Reader of the Runes” trilogy? That’s a question we asked ourselves many times before finalizing the songwriting process.“ Damna and Aydan explain. “Working both on ROTR Part 2 and Part 3 at the same time, really helped us spread the songs, the lyrics and the atmospheres on the whole remaining part of the story as the development of the events needed a strong backing from the music. So, Part 2 is indeed 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. Part 3 instead will explore the disclosure of all the mysteries narrated in the first two chapters and for this very reason you’ll have to expect even further  different musical nuances in the future of this trilogy.”

Slated for a release on April 28, 2023 via AFM Records, the album pre-sale has just started at THIS LOCATION!

Tracklist:

1. Rapture
2. The Hanging Tree
3. Bride of Night
4. Herdchant
5. The Cursed Cavalier
6. To the North
7. Covenant
8. Red Mist
9. Incantations
10. An Autumn Reverie
11. The Repentant

Italian folk power metal heroes ELVENKING have announced the re-releases of two early yet distinctive records, for the first time ever available on Vinyl, of the band’s impressive career! Both the 2001-debut Heathenreel and 2006’s classic The Winter Wake were remastered by Jacob Hansen (Amaranthe, Volbeat, Pretty Maids), and will be reissued as colored Vinyl Anniversary Editions on March 11, 2022 via powerhouse label AFM Records.

“We are relieved to finally be able to announce the Vinyl Anniversary Editions of two of our most important albums.“ ELVENKING comments. “The plan was to release them exactly 20 years (“Heathenreel”) and 15 years (“The Winter Wake”) after the original releases, so in 2021, but because of the prevalent situation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the production process of vinyls underwent several disruptions, thus we were forced to postpone them. Finally we can announce the pre-orders!

“Heathenreel”(originally released in 2001) is definitely our most important album. The Album that started our journey in metal. The Album that defined our place in the world and our sound which we used to define “Folk Aggressive Metal”. The Album we made with the biggest passion and that is well cast in the memory of the metal fans of those years. A really important debut and our mission statement.

“The Winter Wake” (originally released in 2006) was a turning point in our career. Still our most successful album to date, this is an album born after a storming series of events that made Elvenking mature and diverge from a series of errors and ill-fated choices that were destroying the band instead of making it nurture and bloom.”

These exciting ELVENKING anniversary reissues, which belong into every well-sorted folk and power metal Vinyl collection, will be available on March 11, 2022 in various formats – the presale has just started at THIS LOCATION!

For all the ELVENKING and Pagan Metal fans out there – AFM’s Italian Folk Power Metal band reveals some info about “Live Invocations”, the special  live studio performance. It will be streamed on November 20th, at 8pm (CET) on the AFM Records YouTube channel, and it will be preceded by a Q&A with the band, at 7pm (CET) on the band’s social media accounts.

Here’s their official statement:
„Dear Elvenlegions, we can finally reveal more about “Live Invocations”, a special live session filmed in the studio. We have been working hard on this in the last months, finding the right unique setlist, rehearsing it and finding the perfect solution to record it and make it available to you all. We were ready to publish it, but then came the cancelation of our Nov/Dec Europen Tour, so we stopped for a while and decided that we could substitute the tour with this special live recording. It won’t be the same, but at least it’s something in these dreadful times. It will be a free streaming video, but if you want to support the band we have created a Money Box on Paypal (more info below).“

Find the Paypal Money Box here: https://paypal.me/pools/c/8s34Ha80YE

This special live event has been filmed and recorded at “The Central Recording Studios” in Crevada (TV) ITALY.