Think about the last good Sword and Sandal movie, or game; it doesn’t matter when, just that you’ve ever seen one. For me, I think of Conan the Barbarian, Clash of the Titans; you get the idea.

Elvenking live in a land of fantasy, where women randomly rise out of cobalt blue waters and dragons start singing about battles long forgotten. I’m flexing my creative writing background a little bit, but that’s the sort of images that permeate through my head while listening to Reader of the Runes-Luna.

Hailing from Italy, these guys already have eleven full-length albums under their bullet belts with Reader of the Runes-Luna being their 12^th. That’s an impressive discography.

Elvenking gets your blood boiling right away with “Season Of The Owl” a barn-burning attention grabber that instantly transports you, constant reader, to some other realm of consciousness. Big riffs, festival-sized gang vocals, and Elvenking are underway.

This album rips. Period. Following the initial hit comes “Luna” a beautiful bruiser, a song of longing for a love eons gone. It’s a captivating track, and when it collides with “Gone Epoch” they are on fire. This is a roller-coaster ride into memories of better times. “Like riddles of stars we were lost in a reverie/Told in a song, blown in a melody/Long ago in a time that is no more. Like ghosts in the fog we are lost in a memory/Pale shades of what we could’ve been in a thousand years/Long ago, with hearts that decomposed, goodbye dear Ethel”.

I absorbed this album, its lore and the stories being told. But the music is jaw-dropping, “Stormcarrier” is a beast and these riffs are fatter than a bull elephant it’s followed by “Starbath” another gargantuan song that picks you up and carries you into the fantastically lush world of grandiose mountains and valleys that Reader of the Runes-Luna creates.

“On These Haunted Shores” is heavy as fuck, a Folk Metal beat down similar to a fight with an Orc (I don’t fucking know, I played a lot of D&D as a kid. Don’t judge). Anyway, it’s a massive track and one of my favorites. Honestly, I am in love with Elvenking right now (don’t make it weird) this is an enjoyable record, and another band I need to go back and investigate further.

“The Ghosting” is another rollicking heavy hitter, and it’s followed by “Throes of Atonement”, a ‘ballad’ if you want to call it that. It’s not all sappy, though, so that makes it okay, it’s a respite before the ultra-powerful “the Weeping”, and that fist to the face is followed by the immense brutality of “Reader of the Runes – Book II,” a literal blasting furnace. My favorite track has insane blast beats interspersed in the Power Metal riffs. It makes Dragonforce look like underlings and is the perfect closing track… ever? Well, maybe. But whatever, I fucking love it, 10:59 minutes of raging Folk Power Metal. I kept it on repeat all day, letting it soak into my pores.

Apparently, this is the third part in a three-album saga. That means I have to go back and check them out. I must do it! (Raises sword and looks medieval as hell). If you already liked them before, then I’m preaching to the choir, and if you enjoy the merry brutality of Falconer, Turisas, or Dark Moor, you’ll eat this album up. Get it!

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