It’s summer! Time to listen to fresh and catchy tunes? - Well, in a certain way…

But first things first, by now you should have understood that I pretty much have my “methods” to find new music to write about. This time it started all from the artwork of this record, beautifully designed and a perfect fit for the band, the record and the genre itself. It really spoke to me, so here we are with a wild boar that exhales fire made by SkullCult and I couldn’t have asked for a more fitting image for a record like this.

Wild boars and antifascist black metal, these are the first elements that caught my attention while reading the presentation of the German Black Metal Punks RANĂ, who recently released their second full length album Richtfeuer which translates to “Leading Fire” or “Beacon”, which is the main concept of the album itself, “Leads us into the burning down of this world with the hope of building a better one.” - a line from the album promo: The image of fire is a recurrent theme on this record, from its title, to its artwork (the golden flames raised from the wild boar), to its songs and well…also sound if you’re one of those listeners that daydreams while listening to music, an immersive experience into the fire.

Four tracks for almost 45 minutes of desperate and raging black metal that revolves around the theme of fire and its renaissance action in a world that is burning (our world, say goodbye to it, it is burning), with a chance of doom and mournful voices. ”Läutern” is the first track of the record and immediately sets the tone of it,aggressive riffs and lyrics with a little doomy moment of recovery before the end. ”hand in hand we weave rebellion, hand in hand we bring him down”

”Flamura” is the shortest song on this record, I found it a little bit more melodic but still enraged in its riffs. There’s a battle going on, that started in the previous track and it continues: everything is on fire and the rebels won’t stop until everything is set to start again, renaissance from the fire, renaissance from their own bodies. ”though our fangs have been sanded, though our will has been crushed, though our feet won’t recover, our blind rage won’t stop […] raise the hand against the shepherd, raise the hand against the shepherd”

Richtfeuer, the title track starts with a melancholic and mournful voice, there’s fear of the fire, there’s fear of what will become of all of this. But it’s also a chant, like the famous Greek ones from the Iliad, where chanting is referring to someone who will set the earth on fire, the one who will put these rebellious souls to rest but will provide the Earth with another chance, or at least I read it like this and it makes sense to me.

”Our Smouldering Grief / Im Brand” are connected on the record, we have lyrics both in English and in German (and if you’re starting to know me a bit you already know that I had to discover their meaning). ”Our Smouldering Grief” expresses pure sorrow and despair, but also a little bit of hope. Its lyrics, along with the melodic and dragging riffs, give an absolute idea of the core sentiment: ”it may be that the gulfs will wash us down / it may be that we succumb to the wound within / though much is taken much abides / and though, we are not now the strength / which moved heaven and earth that which we are / we are, one equal temper of heroic hearts / made weak by time and fate, but strong in will / to strive, to seek, to find and not to yield in our smouldering grief”

”Im Brand” (“In The Fire”) definitely closes this record, with its German lyrics and last raging sound giving us the last shake before we realize what we’ve been through. One last bath in the flames, one last try to gain strength to face all of the despair, all of the burning we challenge everyday in our lives. The record closes with these lines: “Für jede Wunde, Vergeltung sei dein Brennen / In jeder Stunde sei dein Leben Brand” (“For every wound, revenge be your fire, / in every hour your life shall be a fire”)

It makes perfect sense with all the record, I really liked the whole concept and, also this time, I would be glad to see the band live.