RSS Feed


GAUNTLET RULE
After The Kill

Fighter (2024)
Rating: 6/10

Guitarist Rogga Johansson, alongside fellow journeymen Teddy Möller (vocals) and Peter Svensson (bass), is back in the Gauntlet Rule fold, two years after the Swedish band’s debut full-length outing The Plague Court.

I have to confess that I’ve rarely been excited for a majority of Johansson’s projects and while that statement rings true again, this latest album is one of the more entertaining from his discography.

Stepping outside of the rather tired death metal chugging, Johansson focuses instead on a more traditional metal approach. It’s still not the most fluid of projects due to the at times irritating vocal warbles of Möller, but it entertains nonetheless.

The sound in general is warm and inviting and there is that merging of traditional and power metal as each track gallops along to the tidy chimes of Marcus Rosenqvist’s percussion. A majority of the tracks dwell in mid-tempo range, although the mob are more than capable of speeding things up or injecting variations such as on the closing colossus ‘The Scythe’ where the sound is more grandiose, a soundtrack if you will to accompany you into battle.

Elsewhere, ‘Bite The Hand That Feeds’ ups the pace and provides extra vim and snap, ‘Exception To The Rule’ has an Iron Maiden vibe, although Teddy Möller is rather inconsistent with the vocal prowess. “Alas! The time has come to us,” bellows Möller on the brisk ‘The Night Wind’, a firm favourite of mine with its energetic loping and steely rhythms, although I couldn’t help but chuckle when the lyrics “Still their pricked by Satan’s prongs” hit – I could smell the cheese a mile off.

Obviously Gauntlet Rule is a serious metal band, but all too often I find myself amused by the lyrical content yet bored by the familiar gallops. Still, After The Kill is a sturdy enough album but not one I’ll be returning to.

Neil Arnold

<< Back to Album & EP Reviews



Related Posts via Categories
Share