Regnum Noricum – ‘Lost Legacy’ (2025)
Rating: 9/10
Release: 4 January 2025
Label: Independent
Regnum Noricum has always been one of the more fascinating Celtic War Metal groups. There are a few groups that play more brutal veins of blackened folk metal who have largely remained underground or disbanded. Bran Barr from France was one this reviewer has always had a soft spot for, although their earlier sound was self-admittedly inspired by Cruachan’s debut album. They promised a trilogy but vanished after a much heavier sophmore release. Regnum Noricum are in some ways an interesting inversion. They released a debut full of bestial riffing, visceral vocals, and a raw blackened sound while singing of war, rebellion and resistance. They wore corpsepaint, kilts, and armor. Then they too vanished. Finally we had their single: “Eternal Wandering”. The sound was slightly different, a little bit more blackened, a little less aggressive. Fans would be wondering would this be their new sound? Well yes and no, because as Lost Legacy shows, Regnum Noricum has embraced pagan themes fully, and gone full black metal on this release. A lot of the bite is still there in the background but many of these tunes are just cold, evil, and grim – its like listening to what would otherwise be regular black metal but a lot of the old Regnum Noricum trademarks remain in the background.
For a good example of the new sound and how the imagery compliments their unrelenting sound, the Terra Mater music video is an excellent reference. There are a few calmer moments on the album like some segments on “Malediction” and “A Fading Light” as well as the intros on a lot of the other tracks. However, the intros in question come across more like the slow crescendo to a marching song. And in terms of the first and last track only “A Fading Light” maintains a semblance of the calm and sinister ambience, the atmospheric moments that marks the start of “Malediction” is moreso giving the listener a taste of the raw and desolate warfare that is to come. That returns me to the message this album sends out. It is like a certain Månegarm song “this is a pagan war” but it doesn’t say it in words. The blasphemous devil is in the delivery, the atmosphere and the riffs. This album doesn’t play nice, but regardless, it does change the sound of the former Regnum Noricum album. While this reviewer was more partial to the debut, if you could have a release that is Pagan War Metal in the most literal sense of the word its this. It has been said black metal is a call to war, and Regnum Noricum is playing the marching songs from track one to the bleak, dark ending. The album can be heard on spotify, and the accompanying videos for the album are on youtube.
Tracklist
- Malediction 06:38
- Lost Legacy 03:40
- Tree of the Hanged Men 03:59
- As the Cross Came to Our Land 04:10
- Amanita Muscaria 03:52
- Terra Mater 03:23
- Samhain (feat. Rauhnacht) 05:49
- Inside the Wickerman 04:52
- A Fading Light 05:07