Anchorite – Realm of Ruin
Release Date: 1st August 2025
Label: Personal Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Epic Doom, Heavy Metal.
FFO: Manilla Road, Candlemass, Solitude Aeturnus, Forsaken, Manowar, Cirith Ungol.
Review By: Malte Brigge
Bassist Peter Svensson seems to have trouble holding still, being a member of twenty-two other bands in the past ten years, according to Metal Archives, the most active of which are Assassin’s Blade, Cult of the Fox and Void Moon. He and Leo Stivala of Malta’s Forsaken decided they each needed one more band and formed Anchorite in 2018. Recruiting drummer Marcus Rosenkvist from several of Svensson’s other projects and guitarist Martin Jepsen Andersen who, somehow, is not connected to any other band member’s other projects, they released 2020s Further from Eternity, a decent but uneven album that stretches a little beyond its own abilities. A few years of puttering around, and they’re back with Realm of Ruin, a purveyor of doom that wants you to have an epic adventure. With the same band members, same mixer (Magnus Andersson), same recording studio (Endarker), even the same cover artist (the magnificent Timon Kokott), can Realm of Ruin tighten the reins on this warhorse and keep it focused on the battle it’s charging into?
The one thing that did change was the songwriting process. Whereas Svensson alone penned Further from Eternity, all four members are credited to writing Realm of Ruin, which may be why it is more cohesive. The eponymous opener breaks down the doors with a steely riff and lyrically roots itself in the Manowar and Cirith Ungol camp of waging glorious battle in lands unknown. Anchorite waste no time letting Stivala take point, rightfully so because the man has a serious set of pipes that can hold their own with the likes of Eric Adams, Messiah and Hansi Kürsch, so long as he hews close to his mid-octave comfort zone which, on this record, he does. The absolutely delicious bass tone, however, stands out the most. It never gets buried by the stable of charging riffs and multitracked leads, and it’s my favorite thing about this album.
Songs on thunderous hooves gallop through standard phalanxes of verses and choruses, occasionally pulling up into a trot for a pre-chorus feel or thudding doom stomp. The Lighthouse Chronicles will strengthen your neck, and Stivala captures some Worship Music-era Belladonna magic on the chorus. From a midpoint Maximum Atmosphere slowdown, the song quarter-notes into one of the album’s best solos. Devil on the Throne (with excellent guest solos from Mercyful Fate’s Michael Denner) immediately calls on the old school of riff writing and also proves Anchorite doesn’t stick too slavishly to one repetitive template, though they come close. Room in the Mirror with its brief “Stargazer”-y drum intro doubles the pace of anything else on the album with a fantastic riff, some evil breathy whispers for more Maximum Atmosphere and a good mosh in the middle. Easily the best song on the album, its strengths reveal weaknesses in the armor.
Obligatory fourth-track ballad The Apostate’s Prayer and the slow doom of The Unforgiving Ghost are the biggest stumbles. Not only are they not very interesting, but each continues to be uninteresting for seven minutes. They’re long and feel long, which can be said of the whole album (it’s rather plump at fifty-four minutes). No Vestige of Light stomps strongly and has some lovely bass work (and tone!), but repeats the title to the point of nonsense before just sort of ending, as if they got bored of playing and reached for a beer. This is true of many songs, in fact. Closer Kingdom Undone, decent but predictable, just stops after, again, seven minutes. The guitar solo at the two-minute mark rings off exactly where you think it will, but several measures before you hope it will. Solos rarely extend past eight measures, which is a pity because they are very good.
Look, this isn’t music that wants you to sit there analyzing it. It wants to be the soundtrack as you get out and do great things. When you’re ready to ride with sword and shield, you need a barrage of Big Riffs to spur your steed and pump your blood. That’s what Realm of Ruin aims to do and generally succeeds. Nobody in Anchorite is an up-and-coming warrior needing to prove themselves. You’ve got a bunch of guys with a lot of experience who want to work together and sound comfortable together. The trad-riff-centric approach is solid, solos are excellent, Stivala’s vocals are fire, and have I mentioned the bass tone? There’s doom but little gloom, it gets you stomping, even galloping in places, and when it’s over you’re ready to move on from all that glorious victory and do something else.
(3 / 5)
