REALMBUILDER
BLUE FLAME CAVALRY

The word “epic” means many things to many people, and these days, it is often used casually in conversation to mean anything positive, but to the doomy epic metal band Realmbuilder, the word epic means one thing: a grand journey. Blue Flame Cavalry, the third release by this American outfit, is comprised of eventful songs that are larger and more majestic than those heard on their first two albums (Summon the Stone Throwers and Fortification of the Pale Architect). On Realmbuilder’s latest release, Blue Flame Cavalry, listeners will be ushered into the realm with a short anthem, “They Write Their Names With Fire,” which is a direct continuation of the driving heavy metal from the band’s two previous releases. Thereafter, things get big. “Advance of the War Giants” is thirteen-minute composition that marches through many new terrains for the band—a journey heralded by a ram’s horn and tidal waves of harmony guitar. “Adrift Upon the Night Ocean” is a spacious and lush cut, an introspective and very personal journey, and the last song—“Blue Flame Cavalry”—is possibly the band’s finest track to date, an overture and a song within a song, alternately bleak and rousing.