RAM – Lightbringer (2010)

For a band that has been around over 10 years, RAM has only released two full-length albums of their brand of traditional Heavy Metal. Hailing from Sweden, if we didn’t have any information about RAM we would imagine that they released “Lightbringer” decades ago. This release features what every die-hard Heavy Metal fan dreams about: an epic old-school Heavy Metal assault that will keep you to the edge of your seat.

“Lightbringer” presents us with 10 tracks that are highly entertaining and super diverse. There is not a single dull moment in this album since each track has enough magic inside them to make them stand out individually, and when placed together we get a top notch release that will surely turn heads left and right.

With a strong foundation in the ‘basics’ of Metal, RAM crafts powerful guitar melodies backed with great Heavy Metal vocals. The musicianship in this release is outstanding and keeps the listener engaged by having enough diversity to make all tracks unique sounding. The riff machine has been cranked to ‘high’ and there isn’t a single riff that feels ripped off somebody else or highly repeated to the point of extreme boredom.

The vocals are very old-school and Oscar Carlquist has enough range to hit all the right notes during “Lightbringer”. The drumming is tight and well crafted, and so is the bass guitar line. We can’t really find any weak points in this superb release since it has all the elements that made us love Metal.

The production behind “Lightbringer” gives the album that old-school feeling and allows every single instrument to shine when needed. RAM does not employ any of the new production ‘tricks’ in this release giving it the authentic feeling that we love of our old Heavy Metal albums.

With a self-prophetic title “Lightbringer” will hopefully bring light to all the bands releasing half-assed and uninspired ‘old-school’ releases by showing that you can stay true to Metal and still make 10 songs that do not sound like a copy of each other. This is a must have release for any fan of real Heavy Metal.

Release: June 22nd, 2010

Country: Sweden