Raum Kingdom – Monarchy
Release Date: 27th January 2023
Label: Argonauta Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Sludge, Alternative Metal, Hardcore.
FFO: Eyehategod, Tool, Deftones.
Review By: Ken Love
It’s been a while since I’ve had the chance to review an album here on Metal Epidemic. There’s little better than discovering great new music after picking up an album from an artist who was completely unknown to you before.
The boss man, Dave, sent a list of January releases earlier this month and there were so many it was frankly overwhelming! After sampling snippets from a few I was intrigued to explore Raum Kingdom, a band I had never heard of before, after hearing ‘Red Admiral’ the opening track on the Irish Sludge-come-Alt Metal bands latest album ‘Monarch’.
The immediate thing that stood out to me on Red Admiral – and which carries on throughout the album – was the power & quality of the harsh screamed vocals. This is the highlight of this album for me. Vocalist Dave Lee has a Jacob Bannon-esque power to his screams that perfectly balance unbridled rage with lashings of character and tonality. There is a hardcore edge to these vocals that work perfectly against the backdrop of the sludgy industrialised riffs. Think Converge via Eyehategod. No sooner have you been bludgeoned by the riffs & screams, then the song quickly transposes into a more ethereal place; a place that has more in common with Tool or Deftones than the latter more extreme reference points. It’s a great juxtaposition.
Hairstreak follows, opening with an ominous, foreboding piano line before vocalist Lee delivers a set of melodic vocals that draw more than a few similarities to Tool & A Perfect Circle’s Maynard James Keenan. It’s here when you really start to see the strength in Raum Kingdom’s music. The dynamics between the melancholic & dark alternative rock soundscapes & the angular hardcore-infused sludge of the more furious moments. This counter play is hugely fun & exciting to listen to and enjoy. The riffs are powerful, the production is really meaty & the vocals are simply great. Swallowtail has a supremely cool, mechanical quality that bounces over you and Gate Keeper has a lumbering downtuned, fat as fuck riff that will pull a classic metal stank face as it slaps you around your jaw.
The album closes with Pieris which is the obvious highlight of the record to this listener. This, manages to bring forth the most memorable moments on the record into one place. The reverb-soaked vocals soar alongside glorious lead guitars that do the same. It manages to take all the best bits they demonstrated across the album and hone them to an optimum level here.
This is a great album by a hugely talented band who have incredible potential. The riffs slam, the vocals are immense; absolutely dripping in emotion, while musically it’s full of peaks and troughs. I would – personally – like to hear some more discernible chorus’ come through the music. While the vocals are great, they could do with some more hooks within them. In the absence of that, some of the songs blend together a bit. That said, this record has continued to grow on me, and perhaps I’ll feel different with even more time with it … I already believe that may be the case, as this has moved progressively from a 3 to 3.5 to 4 out of 5 score in the last week.
Raum Kingdom are a supremely exciting young band who have a lot of strings to their bow & have definite potential to progress to further heights.
(4 / 5)
