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This is the first time I've butted heads with Swedish Metallers RAM, and although I've heard their name batted about here and there over the years, I can say their old school temperament never exactly inspired me to explore what they had to offer. Their latest studio submission, the boxy, plodding Lightbringer, is pretty much what you'd expect from a band of this caliber, hammering out some enjoyable but ultimately predicable Trad Metal in the Judas Priest, Accept, and Mercyful Fate vein, with some modern US Power Metal inflections creeping in here and there, and some pretty melodic vocal work and folky guitar harmonies which bring to mind bands such as Wuthering Heights and even Traveller-era Slough Feg.

In spite of some pretty inventive structuring and variety of tone, Lightbringer is a reasonably forgettable listen – with the exception of "In Victory" and the spacey "Awakening the Chimaera" – that, wrapped in a poor production and some sloppy execution, is one you can comfortably miss without missing out.