Year: 2022
Label: Iron Bonehead Productions
Rating: 7,5 / 10
If you follow the few news publications on Bagnik Zine, you already know that the brilliant Australian Nightwolf has expanded the line-up of his project RUNESPELL with the drummer and the keyboardist. I doubt that they managed to make a strong influence on the new album, but somehow it so happened that right now the passion of RUNESPELL began to fade a little.
However, this is not surprising. On the contrary, it is surprising that Nightwolf, being a very productive musician, came close to emptying his sources of inspiration only after 15 (!) years of creating albums in almost the same style. Also, the complete exhaustion is still miles away. If Nightwolf hadn't had so many outstanding records behind him, then "Shores of Náströnd" would have been perceived much better.
By and large, nothing has changed here. The solemn, dark pagan hymns of RUNESPELL are immediately recognizable if you have ever listened to Nightwolf's creativity. There is still a lot of beautiful riffs and melodies. Weaknesses are hidden in the smaller things: the songs lack inspiration a little, the sound from the "ghostly" has become sterile and emasculated, there are some filler guitar parts here and there. Against the general background of the album, it's not really noticeable, but try switching the playback at least to last year's EP “Sentinels of Time”, and you will immediately realize that the novelty “falls short".
Of course, this is only the first sign of a possible decline. Who knows, maybe Nightwolf's fountain of inspiration will flow again with full force. At least, the debut of his new solo project has already been announced next year, and no one is going to drop RUNESPELL either. We'll wait and see.
I advise you to pay attention to the design of the album, made by the Ukrainian artist Tern, with whom the band has been collaborating for a long time. Remember this name - you will hear it again soon.
English (UK) 
Крыўская