#WhiteRune 🇫🇮 Dawn of the White Rune

Band: White Rune
Title: Dawn of the White Rune
Label: Hammer of Hate Records
Release date:  19 August 2022
Country: Finland
Format reviewed: High-quality Digital Recording 

Oh my… Can’t stop falling in love with bands from the countries up North, and it’s mainly because of one reason: the overwhelming feeling of cold, despair and anguish they can convey. All mixed up in a brew that’s not for drinking, but for listening to it again and again until your senses become dull. And that’s the best feeling in the world for me: feeling like in a trance, becoming one with the music. Pleasure for my ears.

This time, I came across a Finnish band and their debut album: White Rune and their upcoming “Dawn of the White Rune”. And, let me warn you about their sound: this album contains all the elements I said before, and a very high level of skills: at playing the instruments, at songwriting, mixing… Good work must be appreciated, and in this case it’s an excellent work.

The album starts with an instrumental theme, “Brought by the Touch of Death”, and honestly, I couldn’t imagine a better intro! Wolves howling, crackling fire, waves breaking softly on the shore, and in addition some gloomy keyboards… Really feels like being there. I dream about being there. When keys intensify, the eerie feeling becomes ominous, and then there are some strong percussion beating… damn, this mix is fantastic! 

All the mentioned above lead us to “The Iron Claws of Satan”; I love that mid-paced tempo drums and that keyboard melody. When I can finally appreciate the vocals there’s no surprise: I was expecting them to be raspy, grim, deeply sinister. And of course this man’s voice is. Feels like he has something animalistic running through his veins, when he screams… 

With “White Rune Rising” the rhythm speeds up, the gloomy feeling intensifies and I surrender to that powerful annihilation of my senses. I cannot resist the keyboard driven melodies, the entire album speaks this language and it feels so liberating, so soothing. Guitars are mostly in the background and are constantly buzzing or playing some Black Metal riffs, “Soulstorm” is an outstanding theme in so many aspects. The only “different” piece in this album is “Death at Sundown”; all of a sudden, all the sinister and dusky tunes are gone. Of course it’s not a cheerful song, it contains a big dose of melancholy and the vocals sound as dark and furious as usual. It’s just a bit curious that there’s such a sudden change in the middle of the album. But this track also stands out, only that it puts me in a different mood. 

Oh but then “Echoes of Torment” strikes and everything returns to its path. There are still more than 22 minutes of grim tunes to go… until the music starts to softly vanish in the last minute of “The Ravenous Part 2 – Torn Kingdom Come”, only some guitar notes and keys fading away. 

Special mention to the cover, so classic, so perfectly fitting the music… it speaks loudly about the content, from the logo, the type of letters, the red image… simply outstanding.

Well, after saying repeatedly that the main responsible for the sinister sound of White Rune are the keyboards, I think that you know exactly what to expect. Yeah, THAT special atmosphere… Don’t miss this album if you are in for the kind of sound I’ve been describing all through my review. There’s no need to invent anything new, there’s only need to be really good at doing something, and White Rune is damn awesome. For me, this album deserves 9/10   Sílvia 

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9/10 Epic Storm 
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