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This is a little out of the boundaries to where my taste extends – I mean don't get me wrong I love traditional Heavy Metal just as much as the next guy, I just haven't explored much of the genre. At first I was expecting this to be some sort of Black Metal album, both the title and sound of "Crushing The Dwarf Of Ignorance" gave me a feeling that my expectations were correct – though once "Lightbringer" kicked in I was proven wrong. RAM perform a pretty kick-ass style of Heavy Metal with a few nice additions of speed and US Power Metal thrown in for flavor. Comparisons could be made to acts such as King Diamond, Iron Maiden, (earlier) Iced Earth, hell I'm reminded of Manowar in places. They boast a singer who reminds me of a less cheesy King Diamond, the guy sounds powerful and suitably demonic in places. Backing him up is a solid rhythm section and an inventive guitarist, Harry Granroth.

The guys certainly have a lot of interesting stuff going on, from nice almost doom-like moments to kick ass speed riffage; the vocals also have an interesting range to them. They also manage to keep me entertained through a 9 minute traditional metal effort, something bands such as Majesty failed to do. Yes the 9 minute epic "Suomussalmi (The Few Of Iron)" is certainly an ass kicker, marching on at a steady mid-pace this stands as very plausible to me. In my experience I've heard few acts pull this feat off. Personal favorites are the twin attack of "In Victory," a solid metal stomper with a sick chorus; the guitar part in the pre-chorus is highly melodic and sounds superb, and the King Diamond-esque "Awakening The Chimaera". "The Elixir" is another cool track, the vocals are particularly immense here and the riffage is choice. There's nothing really bad on offer here, although "Titan" lacks the same amount of oomph the rest of the album sports.

RAM serve up a nice dish of cold hard metal here, I would imagine fans of the genre or acts such as Mercyful Fate, Iron Maiden or King Diamond would certainly find something here. Don't let this one slip you by – give it a shot, I'm sure as hell glad I did.