Sweden’s Puteraeon are back with their fifth full-length album, Mountains of Madness. Their running themes across their albums are of Lovecraftian lore, and this album delves into one of, if not my favorite, of all of Lovecraft’s tales – At the Mountains of Madness. Many bands across the decades, as well as currently, have tackled Lovecraft, such as Necrodeath and Morbid Angel. But a band creating all their material around Lovecraft, well, I can’t think of any other band. At the Mountains of Madness was actually in pre-production to be a Hollywood movie years ago, with Tom Cruise as the lead and Guillermo del Toro directing, and James Cameron producing. This was set to be an R-rated movie; however, Universal Pictures canned it, stating costs and marketing were going to be a problem. Yes, I remember the announcement of this years ago, and was pissed, since I had been following the early stages of this movie potentially being made.

Without spoiling the short story, the basic premise revolves around a hidden area in the Arctic, characterized by numerous strange cliffs, mountains, and unusual shapes. It also includes an expedition team, which goes searching for answers and let’s say they get more than they bargained for. Suffice it to say I think this would make quite a blockbuster movie, and hopefully, in my lifetime, it will be fully realized, since it’s a fascinating and at times pretty damn spooky story.

Puteraeon’s album cover gives you a glimpse into some of their interpreted imagery from the story, and I absolutely love this album cover. It also conjures up the classic movie, the remake, from John Carpenter – The Thing. If you claim to be a fan of Swedish death metal yet have not heard of Puteraeon, then you, dear reader, have been sleeping under a rock for close to two friggin’ decades. The lineup remains consistent, with Daniel Vandija on bass, Anders Malmström on drums, Jonas Lindblood on vocals/guitars, and Rune Foss also on guitar. 9 songs in 40 minutes is the perfect run time, and “Miskatonic Expedition” begins with the slow-paced instrumentation. While not usually a fan of opening instrumentals, this one, due to its pacing, goes along with the thematic nature of the album theme, especially since each song tells the tale in chronological order of the fateful expedition and their finds.

The slow pacing goes right into “The Land of Cold Eternal Winter” which has such a dirty and heavy opening guitar riff. The pacing is slow and deliberate, so in some ways, a continuation of the intro. Great gruff throaty vocals with some melodic guitar harmonies, which are well done. Some of the mid-paced double bass action rears its brutal head, and the bass guitar has a nice tone to it. The song picks up to a fast speed, not quite blasting, however, the guitar harmonies over the fast part conjure up this album cover. Ethereal, atmospheric, and really pretty creepy. This is actually a pretty emotive section, then right into that slower, dirty guitar riffing. “Remnants” begins with the traditional Swedish death metal fast headbanging gallop one is accustomed to, then right into the blasting. The blasting is fucking ferocious and will snap your body in 0.0 seconds. The song gets into a slower passage, which is atmospheric, and the speed factor returns ten-fold again. This song slays from beginning to end. Scorching!!

“The Nameless City” is the longest song at six minutes, opening with excellent riffing as well as extraordinary guitar melodies and bass thumping. This beginning section, I feel, is trying to make the Shoggoths rise!!!!!!! This song is a slow, thumping, headbanging tune. The speed slightly picks up with the massive double bass drums and layered vocals. The stop-and-go fast riffing, under the slow drumming with its quarter-time effect, harkens back to “In Union We Stand”, the classic song by Overkill. Then things shift with the hallowed spoken word type of echoed vocals and music, which again paints a picture in this writer’s mind, since I have read this short story too many times to count, I’m about to read it now again!! Some of the layered vocal effects are for good measure as they add menace and horror to the music.

“I Am the Darkness” ends the album with a slow atmospheric build-up before the chaotic fast part comes blasting through alongside excellent guitar riffing and headbanging moments. Slow, groovy beatdown sections are blasted into sections of this song, as well as guitar soloing. Some of the vocals over the faster parts do come across as a bit noisy and chaotic, and that is simply done on purpose, since this is at the end of the short story; therefore, these effective musical techniques capture those moments perfectly. The slower ending, as it fades to end the album, is what I was expecting.

Mountains of Madness may be a sleeper of an album since not much publicity surrounded its release, but suffice to say, this is the best overall album Puteraeon has created. With the lyrical themes tied into every single song title, to how the album flows like a story, and how the music and vocals capture these moments quite honestly is pretty damn impressive. Tie that in with a sick AF album cover and great production, and this is one of my favorite releases of 2025!!

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