Artist: White Rune
Country: Finland
Label: Hammer Of Hate Records
Formats: LP / CD
Year: 2025
With another gorgeous cover, it is hard to miss there’s a new White Rune album out. And in the current musical constellation that seems to be more than welcome. The upswing in popularity of bombastic and Melodic Black Metal in recent years will certainly benefit bands such as White Rune. With two demos in 2021 (both compiled as ‘The Spell Of Eternal Fire’ in 2022) and their ‘Dawn Of The White Rune’-debut album (also from 2022) the band has set quite a standard and expectation. While I personally preferred the band’s both demos over the full-length album, it is hard to deny White Rune’s appeal. This recently released second album ties in perfectly with what the band had already set in motion with their previous work.
Although this type of music rarely comes across as truly original, its success lies more in the way catchy melodies are woven into a dynamic whole of rhythm changes and well-composed orchestrations. Both White Rune’s demos and debut album have succeeded in this to a reasonable extent, and managed to avoid the most common comparisons with the greats of the genre. With ‘Eventide On Aurora’, the band seems to have deliberately thrown that idea overboard.
There is no drastic change in style, but it is truly impossible not to hear the obvious parallels with Cradle Of Filth and Dimmu Borgir (both old and new). The comparison with the former in particular is so obvious; just listen to ‘Bloodcurse Bound’ or ‘Aurora’ with those typical ‘Cruelty And The Beast’-like female spoken word parts. You can’t convince me that this was accidental. Furthermore, the more prominent use of organ-like keyboards in, for example, ‘Arcane Journeys’, combined with those Shagrath-inspired vocals, must be seen as a direct homage to Dimmu Borgir.
Is that a bad thing? No, not at all. I prefer “borrowed” ideas that are well done to poorly conceived or executed music masquerading as originality. The disadvantage is that it comes across as a bit facile, and there is a danger that it will quickly be reduced to background music. This is not least because it does not reach the level of Cradle Of Filth and Dimmu Borgir. Regardless, ‘Eventide On Aurora’ is a solid sophomore album.
