Runemagick - Into Desolate Realms - CD SLIPCASE

Founded in 1990 (at first as Desiderius, temporarily sans "k") as a shortlived solo affair that ended four demos and three years later, Nicklas took up the moniker for a full band that still underwent countless line-up changes with several well-known names from the Swedish scene going through the revolving door. A longer period of silence from 2007 on ended with archival demo releases and another full-length in the shape of "Evoked from Abysmal Sleep" (2018) that showed the four-piece at a new peak both creatively and performance-wise. Now after hardly one year, they not only deliver their next EP but also said album's successor, conveying a sense of regained regularity. Whereas the EP crystallizes what Runemagick are about in a rather compact way, the album is a sprawling celebration of lethal doom that leaves no wishes unfulfilled. With such strong material in their hands, the band now does not want to leave anything to coincidence while, of course, taking it all slowly as usual.