KNIGHTS OF THE REALM – Knights Of The Realm (2021)
Formed by W.E.T. / ECLIPSE guitarist Magnus Henriksson and TIAMAT drummer Lars Sköld, KNIGHTS OF THE REALM is the new Swedish band with the aim to spread their music to as many metalheads as possible, all the while having a blast doing it.
Their self-titled debut “Knights Of The Realm” combines melody and punchy attack in equal parts, delivering bouncy, catchy rockers around the 3-minute mark served with a bright, huge production style.
If short and good is twice good, KNIGHTS OF THE REALM did the trick, because in a mere 38 minutes / 10 effective tracks the band created one of the best melodic metal debut albums of the year.
KNIGHTS OF THE REALM is many years of hard rock / metal experience combined into a pure vicious rolling machine. Larry “The Hammer” Shield (Lars Sköld) has toured the globe and recorded with legendary band Tiamat for as long as he can remember, and is without a shadow of a doubt the band’s backbone.
Megalomagnus (Magnus Henriksson) has been making history as member of Erik Martensson’s Eclipse and W.E.T. and is a bonafide guitar hero, who’s both capable of some heavy duty riffage as well as delivering gorgeous melodies.
Vocalist Mean Machine (Marcus Von Boisman) has been working in the shadows of metal for many years, and played with Swedish bands Windupdeads and Stormen. And as far as the Mean Machine goes, well, the name says it all! He delivers the soaring rock vocals we all love, with attitude and feeling.
We find cool song titles such as “Chains of Metal”, “Blood on Steel”, “When Metal Meets the Beast” and “Metal Attack” hint at what this is all about. On the track “Heavy Metal”, the band pays respect to its musical heroes and at the same time makes a bit of fun of a genre that these men clearly love. It’s excellent self-deprecating humour delivered in a fine form of classic melodic metal.
“Fields of Fire” is more of a straight-forward track and it is one of my favourites on the album. The album never gets boring. There is enough musical variety here including midtempo melodies and groovy hard rock to keep the listener glued to the speakers.
The album contains excellent and entertaining songs which have a sound foundation in classic heavy metal history. People who take themselves too seriously may not understand this kind of tongue-in-cheek approach to heavy metal. But for the rest of us, this is gloriously fun.
The song styles, the lyrics, the guitar sounds and everything else about Knights Of The Realm are great reminders of why we all love classic 1980s metal / hard. This is a great tribute to the past but delivered here and now.
If European melodic metal with an 80s spirit but a big 2021 production is your thing – think the heaviest side of ECLIPSE with a retro feel – then Sweden’s KNIGHTS OF THE REALM. Hard-hitting and very melodic their music is the best of two worlds nicely packaged into CD.
Highly Recommended
01 – An August Play
02 – Into The Void
03 – Heavy Metal
04 – Fields Of Fire
05 – Chains Of Metal
06 – Blood On Steel
07 – When Metal Meets The Beast
08 – Steel My Heart
09 – Standing At The Gates Of Hell
10 – Metal Attack
Marcus Von Boisman (vocals)
Magnus Henriksson (guitars, bass)
Lars Sköld (drums, percussion)
BUY
www.amazon.co.uk/Knights-Realm/dp/B09CFS7C7F
