Elvenking – ‘Rites Of Disclosure’

Folk Metal

Reaper Entertainment

22nd,Release Date – May 22^nd 2026

Well, here’s a thing. The Elvenking has obviously been having a spring clean. They’ve looked behind the wardrobe and the back of the sofa and found a bunch of songs that were released digitally and never made it onto a physical record. The songs act as bridges between their ‘Reader Of The Runes’ trilogy, but not content with releasing these stand-alone singles, they have included a load of covers plus two new tracks. They describe this release as closure to the past and the beginning of the future.

Kicking off with the new number ‘Blizzards Of Anger’, a wonderful chunk of melodic metal that gets properly heavy on the chorus, allowing singer Damna to get all growly. The second new track, ‘Rite Of Passage’, gets darker and chuggier with another fabulous melody. ‘The Past Is Forever’ goes back to folk metal with a bouncy rocker led by the cheerful violin of Lethien, perfect for a drunken gig jig. Things get proper folky on ‘The Moon And Magic’, which swirls and twirls on another violin line before the guitars take over the melody which gets you swaying along. ‘Ethel’ is smoother and softer, with a dual vocal and acoustics behind Lethien.

The start of the covers begins with King Diamond’s ‘Arrival’. Crikey, this rocks! The added violin is class, and Damna gives the King a run for his money in the falsetto stakes. Iron Maiden’s ‘No Prayer For The Dying’ is faithful. ‘Children Of Decadence’ from Children Of Bodom is perfect for Elvenking with loads of melodies for them to play around with, plus they get heavy too. They give us ‘Man Of Iron’ from Bathory (a tune I’m not familiar with); surprisingly it’s a folky acoustic ballad. Then we get Skyclad’s ‘Salt On The Earth’, which is another perfect song for Elvenking. Final Cut is Venom’s ‘Prime Evil’, featuring Snowy Shaw on drums and Tony ‘Demolition Man’ Dolan helping on vocals.

I have a lot of affection for Elvenking. They cover loads of bases and offer everything. This is a fine release that closes a chapter and opens another with a bright hope and excitement. Can’t wait to see what they do next, and in the meantime this will do nicely.

Track List

Blizzards Of Anger

Rite Of Passage

The Past Is Forever

The Moon And Magic

Ethel

Arrival

No Prayer For The Dying

Children Of Decadence

Man Of Iron

Salt On The Earth

Prime Evil