(written by Islander)
Gladium Regis was born in the early 2000s in Italy, and later moved forward in London to produce a dungeon synth release named Kingdom in 2020 (during the intervening years, the project’s alter ego Arcanist Augur Svafnir co-founded and fronted the Italian pagan black metal band Draugr). Now Svafnir has re-directed the music of Gladium Regis in a way intended to re-capture “the unpolished grandeur of early 1990s symphonic and epic black metal”, and the results are manifested in a new album named Quest.
Although Gladium Regis is Svafnir’s solo project, he is accompanied on Quest by some talented guests: Davide Straccione (Shores of Null) provided guest vocals on three songs; Lupus Nemesis (Atavicus) joined Svafnir on additional instrumentation, choral arrangements, and final mixing at Genxia Studios; and Tamoth (Obscura Nox Hibernis) contributed acoustic guitar passages for the album’s intro and intermezzo.
What we have for you today is the premiere of the second single from Quest, a song named “Durindana“. But before we get to it, we want to share some of the words of introduction provided by the Dusktone label, which will release the album on February 27th:
Lyrically and conceptually, Quest shifts from the purely fantastical worlds of Kingdom towards the chivalric epics of Ludovico Ariosto (Orlando Furioso), Matteo Maria Boiardo (Orlando Innamorato), and Sir Walter Scott (Ivanhoe). These tales of medieval honor, love, and sacrifice serve as metaphors for esoteric and gnostic themes — a continuation of Svafnir’s long-standing fascination with the occult, paganism, and fantasy literature.
Musically, Gladium Regis draws upon the legacy of Summoning, Dissection, Emperor, Falkenbach, and early Dimmu Borgir, while also incorporating folk and medieval elements reminiscent of Angelo Branduardi, Antonino Riccardo Luciani, and Guillaume de Machaut. The music is further enriched by touches of heavy and power metal, with occasional electronic and punk influences, to evoke the wondrous and the epic, the perilous and the dreamlike, the blessed and the cursed. Through this blend, Svafnir sought to musically channel tragic madness, erotic enchantments, occult and magical mystery, oniric wonders and martial fury.
And now let’s turn to the song “Durindana“, presented with a visualizer video that draws upon the album’s cover art.
In line with the album’s name, the song has a questing nature, inspiring mythic visions of ancient heroes touched by gods and fighting for glory. Its rhythmic energy relentlessly surges, with drums galloping and cantering and the bass vividly throbbing throughout. High overhead, an elaborate amalgam of symphonic synths, glittering flute-like keys, and whirring guitars creates slow-flowing tides of mesmerizing musical magnificence with an ancient, pagan aura.
The music creates elevated and unearthly moods of striving and uplift, but the song is also fierce, thanks largely to the scorching intensity of warlike screams. Near the end Svafnir unfurls an exhilarating guitar solo that resembles the skirling of pipes, and then impassioned choral vocals send the song soaring even higher.
Dusktone will release Quest on February 27th, on jewelcase CD and digital formats, and they recommend it for fans of Falkenbach, Summoning, and Sojourner. Find pre-orders and more info via the links below. Also below, we’ve included a stream of the album’s first single, “Crux Inversa Intra Lunam“.
PRE-ORDER:
https://dusktone.bandcamp.com/album/quest
https://www.dusktone.org/product/gladium-regis-quest/
GLADIUM REGIS:
https://www.facebook.com/GladiumRegis
https://www.instagram.com/gladiumregis/
DUSKTONE:
Website: https://www.dusktone.it/
Webstore: https://www.dusktone.org/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/dusktone
IG: https://www.instagram.com/dusktone/
Bandcamp: http://dusktone.bandcamp.com