Dead Runes – Raidho

A long unending slog sifting through albums to review. It’s a good problem to have. It’s even better when the band is unsigned, free agents. Very little to go on, Nashville and stoner rock was enough to get me interested. No PR dude selling this song set. Straight from the band themselves, an 8-song set ready to play. Time to rock.

Country music jangles on the streets in Nashville. In the low-lit back alleys, the Runes trio smashes and grabs your eardrums. The first instrumental track didn’t quite break musical ground, at first listen.

Half a dozen plays later, the plodding heaviness melts in your brain. “Secrets of Mountains”, is a 3-minute prelude to what the trio serves up. Tight grooves, riffing excellence. All rock fans, let it play out. Dead Ruins delivers the metal goods.

The ears perked up the intro on the sophomore track, “Allfathers Path”. A rocking soulful metal smash up. The straight-ahead heavy rock packs every second of this song. A power trio the songwriting capital needs to embrace. The vocals are a throwback to 1980s metal. A strong, mid-range melodic. There’s a grunge feel. At moments I can hear vocally, a Soundgarden influence.

“Iron Song” is six-minutes of rock fury. Follow them on Instagram, no FB here. Be the first in your group of friends to stream these emerging stoner rock heavyweights. I’m hearing a hybrid Clutch and Monster Magnet, a dusting of Fu Manchu. Hits of Acid King too.

The next song, the title track, “Raidho” is a change of pace. An eight-minute musical exploration. You get a solid sense of their musicianship. A slower tempo, gives off alt rock smashed with post punk, laced with Kyuss. It’s all original. The song is one to play over and over. It may not be brute metal force; it’s got a soul.

No slick production here. Raw and ragged, props to the engineer for capturing this killer song set without big budget studio magic dust.

“Different Stars” is straight ahead soulful heavy rock. Then shifts into Motorhead throwdown chops in the outro. This song is an All-American muscle car, with a three-speed manual. There’s a Scandinavian folklore theme. Song titles, “My Freya”, “Allfather’s Path” and “To Hel and Back” make the thematic trinity. “To Hel and Back” busts down the doors. A slow, funky gallop intro bounces along, then metal fury makes your speakers pulse. The drums are tight, hit hard. A dose of Pacific Northwest grunge grime on this one. A heavy groove. A pantheon of stoner rock greats melted and forged into an excellent album. The song set is punch after punch. The godfathers of metal, Black Sabbath lives in the veins of the band’s songwriting.

I won’t score any album this high (get it stoner rock…) unless it gets multiple plays before committing to an early candidate for top 10 albums of the year. Download, stream, buy their vinyl. https://www.instagram.com/deadrunesband/