Runereader – Pathfinder (EP)

Self Released

Release Date: 04.07.25

Running Time: 27:51

Review by Dark Juan

Score: 241,934,892,858/10

It is well known that Dark Juan is a fan of theatricality and silliness. Hence his love of Eurovision and bands that don’t tell us who they are. Dark Juan is also of the opinion that Metal is a fluid thing, a chimaera of swirling influences and more than willing to be intrepid in its acceptance of new things, unless you are a fat, late fifty-something still wearing their original Scorpions t-shirt from 1983 and lamenting that Sleep Token are not Metal. Well, fucking guess what, buster, yes they are, and they are also cool as fuck because their lead singer is called Vessel, and I don’t have a clue what he looks like because of his mask. That’s fucking cool and I will fight you all about it. Just like Ghost are Metal, with their vaudevillian style and their (admittedly Scooby Doo-esque) Satanic silliness. So are The Gates. Hell, even Twin Temple are Metal as fuck with their attitude, their open love of Satan and their entire schtick, regardless of whether they are playing Doo-Wop or not.

Metal is an attitude as well as just being a form of music. And it is in that mode of thought I want you to listen to Dark Juan while he tells you about the idiosyncratic stylings of Runereader, a project (I know who the person behind it is, but I’m fucked if I’m going to tell you who they are!) which is faceless, but not meaningless. The Platter of Splatter ™ has once more been unleashed and “Pathfinder” has been resolutely placed upon it, so that Runereader once again will pass beneath my critical gaze.

It is well known that Dark Juan is a fan of Runereader and their wholly original fusion of Black Metal, Dance, Industrial, Folk and Classical, and Runereader has not lost even a single iota of the brain-mashing insanity they clearly suffer from. Their music encapsulates just what madness sounds like – lutes and acoustic guitars and pastoral rhythms crash headlong into buzzing, angry Black Metal riffs and velocities that should only be attained when outside of the Earth’s gravity well. The vocals range from epic to deranged and the music, although still completely out to lunch, has lost some of the tinkly-bonk, broken child’s toy quality that the very first EP, “Forn Siðr – En Ny Början” had, but builds on the Dance and Synthwave influence on the second EP. I can only imagine that Runereader has murdered another band who was doing a photo shoot in the forest in which it dwells and has “liberated” their equipment for its own nefarious purposes. The keyboard work no longer sounds like it has been performed on that 1980s Casio that at least one member of our families has owned at some point and may still be gathering dust in an attic somewhere. The sound of “Pathfinder” is vastly more mature than on previous recordings and, although Dark Juan found a perverse pleasure in the rudiments of the first EP, it has to be said that the richer, fuller, arguably more professional sound on this release makes for a more satisfying listening experience than on the previous two. Even though I dearly love the previous two. It is deeply enjoyable to have been in at the start of a band’s career and to hear them develop and mature and go to even more interesting musical places. It was like that with The Chronicles of Manimal and Samara, and it is like that now with Runereader.

It's also a bit of a shock as to how Runereader is able to combine disparate genres and make it sound like it should be the way it is on record. It frankly should not fucking work! Yet it does, and now Runereader is flirting with epic choruses, especially on ‘Collecting Wishes’, where they have gone from their usual, visceral vocal bite in favour of an almost New Romantic/ Synthwave/ Goth vibe (don’t worry, they are still snarling in their usual misanthropic fashion on the backing vocal and on the middle part of the song). Runereader can actually croon. I’m as shocked as you are.

Well, it’s fair to say that this EP has confounded my expectations so far. The opening track, ‘In Saltus Magicae’ amps up the Folk and Black Metal components of their sound to frankly egregious levels, serrated, chunky palm-muted riffing giving way to flute and classical guitar, with Runereader’s hateful, baleful snarl underpinning it all, yet also encompassing an almost-Folk chant of a vocal in parts. It’s the kind of sword and sorcery soundtrack stuff you might normally expect from a BM/ Folk song, but Runereader is not staying in that vein forever, oh no. There’s a danceable break in the song that drips with electronics before he returns to some kind of bizarre far-future pastoral world where crops are gathered by robots.

Or some shit like that. My poor brain is tired trying to quantify this musical experience. I can say that it is truly unique. You can’t mix Satyricon, 2Unlimited and Gunship and expect to get away with it, yet the giggling fucking demon behind Runereader has done just that and frankly has done it with aplomb.

The absolute psychopathic twat.

‘Pathways’ fucks with your expectations again. Lush chorus, stabbing, dangerous, sparking electronics and vocals that range from deranged to lugubrious (including a contribution from Claire Williams) are slapped silly by a percussive assault that will reduce flesh to jelly in less than a minute. This is followed by ‘The Last Time I Drew My Sword’. This song sounds like Dimmu Borgir have been let loose in a fairy glade and are busy laying waste to it in a musical battle with the fey ones, and the battle is by no means going entirely in the favour of the corpse-painted and spike clad ones. Where the humans have power on their side, the fey are fucking cunning and undermining them from behind and beneath. However, the percussion reaches lightspeed with alacrity, and the thought of Galder having a guitar battle with an elegant, green-clad fairy luteist has made me giggle so much beer has come out of my nose.

At which point we must end this review, because the madness is crawling back into my head, an inky blackness of despair and hurt creeping around the edges of my thoughts, susurrating whispers and sibilants oozing from the murk as the colour drains from my dreams and memories and everything turns stark, metallic grey and the noises start. The whirring, the tortured shrieking of grinding metal and the fizzing and sputtering of shorting electronics and the stench of raw flesh and ozone permeates the air, as Runereader returns from whatever caustic, demonic dimension it resides in and this time, the clarion call of their music has brought them to me. That’s it. I’m fucking going down fighting. Come at me, you fucking stabby bastard and I’ll rip your nipples off!

The Patented Dark Juan Blood Splat Rating System has sedated Dark Juan for the good of humanity as it tends to get a bit untidy when he’s in that kind of mood. Blood is such a persistent stain. He always gets like this when he hears a Runereader record. We award Runereader 241,934,892,858/10 because a) this music is truly unique and special and resonates with Dark Juan when he is not sedated, b) we know the vile creature who comes up with this stuff and frankly we are afraid for our lives if we don’t give them a good score and c) it’s frankly fucking wonderful to hear something new being tried.

TRACKLISTING:

1. In Saltus Magicae

2. Pathways (feat. Claire Williams)

3. The Last Time I Drew My Sword

4. Collecting Wishes

LINE-UP:

Runereader – a mysterious creature that only emerges from the forest it calls home when it needs access to electricity to record the insanity consuming its being, and thence to email it to Dark Juan so he can be corrupted yet further.

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