Ragnarok – Arising Realm (1997)

March 16, 2024

Came for the album art (I mean, just look at it), stayed for the cold yet precise black metal. Arising Realm sounds so brittle it feels like the entire thing could collapse into thousands of icy shards at any given moment. Despite this, a rock solid backbone of tight drumming and deep bass allow hypnotic guitar riffs to weave through frozen tapestries, accompanied by occasional smatterings of frosted keys and evil roars of vocal outpouring.

With this group / project being from Norway, I feel like I should have heard of this before, but alas I have not. Perhaps it is the generic nature of the band name? I feel like there’s probably a hundred bands called Ragnarok. Either way, this record seems like a gem that can be found for those who traverse the less travelled path, and off the strength of this album I’m very curious as to the rest of Ragnarok’s catalogue.