Runespell – Wells Of Slidhr [Demo]

While Runespell started out as a solo band of Nightwolf (mostly known for his work in Eternum), it was expanded to a full-fledged band in 2022. This gave the band the opportunity to perform on stage as well and to commemorate the band’s appearance on 2023’s edition of the Never Surrender Festival in Berlin, Germany, the band released this 4-track rehearsal tape that was recorded live in September of the same year.

That means that ‘Wells Of Slidhr’ evidently sounds a bit rawer in nature than the latest of Runespell’s releases, but having said that, these live recordings sound remarkably good. To such an extent that the slightly rawer approach, at least in production, does add a certain flair to the music. For sure ‘Wells Of Slidhr’ doesn’t suffer from an inferior bedroom recording quality that many rehearsal tapes tend to do.

Musically then, the tape offers three songs that are taken from the last two records, I reckon that their live set mainly focussed on their most recent studio work, in which the Pagan Black Metal feeling prospers even more than the bands earlier output. The majestic and epic grandeur of those songs do get a new dimension with this rawer live treatment and I can only guess how good the band must have been on stage. Yet, the most interesting song on this tape is the third one, ‘The Sempiternal Guard’. This one didn’t appear on any of the Runespell’s previous releases, so as far as I could guess this is a new track that would (or could) appear on the band’s follow-up to 2022’s ‘Shores Of Náströnd’ (Iron Bonehead Productions). Whether or not that would be the case, at least it belongs to the most epic tracks the band ever put forth, the ever-ongoing melody gives the song a strong melancholic and heroic atmosphere worthy of a Runespell full-length.

The tape was originally sold at the Never Surrender Festival and the few leftovers ended up on the band’s Bandcamp-page and Iron Bonehead Productions’ mailorder. In the meantime the band sold out of their copies, but for those who are interested (and you should) the last bits are still available at the Iron Bonehead shop.