And you have to respect the fact that they are leaning into the Game of Thrones thing on their new EP. 6 years after the show has ended, that’s really striking while the iron is hot.

I keed, of course, there are still bands doing the Lord of the Rings stuff, so whatever floats your boat, and who know we may finally get George RR Martin’s new book, before I die. But until then, here is a 5-song EP with song titles like “Mad King”, “Blackfyre”, and “Harrenhal”, but above the GoT themes, there isn’t much else going on here beyond some standard, slightly melodic US black metal.

Shrill, frosty guitars, delivering tremolo-picked riffs over a largely bassless low end and shrieking vocals with a few background bellows is the order of the day, so fans of Dark Funeral et al might dig this. But it’s not until the third song on the EP, “Reign Of Fire”, that anything remotely gets me interested, as it’s pretty standard, OK, not great stuff.

“Reign of Fire” has a solid, fierce, more melodic main riff and some militant and moody mid-paced parts, then the EPs best track, “Blackfyre” has a solid, majestic opening gallop and a few keyboards lingering in the background, which make it another solid track before the closer “Harrenhal”, making it three in a row with a more moody, slower, 6+ minute number, befitting the nsamesake haunting location.

An OK, EP, but nothing I’ll be going back to, but I’ll certainly listen to anything the band does next- maybe a Breaking Bad themed EP?