On April 28th, 2023, Elvenking will continue their epic quest with Reader Of The Runes – Rapture, the sequel to their 2019 record, Reader of the Runes – Divination. Forging a potent magic stronger than ever by evoking the essence of heavy metal, pagan metal, folk and melodic death metal, Elvenking set sail to horizons more distant than ever before. The band has shared a music video for first single, the album title track, "Rapture".

Guitarist Aydan and vocalist Damna comment: 

"After three years of absence, we decided to give our fans a taste of the album that could be as plenty as possible. 'Rapture' is one of the longest tracks of the lot and we feel it has all the epicness, the tragic nature and most of the nuances that the album incorporates in its entire length, so this is what we wanted to offer to our listeners as a first glimpse of Reader of the Runes - Rapture. Also, lyrically it is the perfect link between the previous chapter and this one, as it is the Introduction. The story opens on the Reader of the Runes himself and we read about his mindset and plans before the climax that will be described in the rest of the songs."

Reader Of The Runes – Rapture was written between 2020 and 2022, and was recorded between May and October 2022 by the band and renowned producer Scott Atkins (Cradle of Filth, Behemoth) who also took over mixing and mastering duties.

Tracklist:

"Rapture"                                
"The Hanging Tree"          
"Bride of Night"                  
"Herdchant"                           
"The Cursed Cavalier"      
"To the North"                    
"Covenant"                           
"Red Mist"                            
"Incantations"                     
"An Autumn Reverie"        
"The Repentant"    

"How would we have approached musically the second chapter of the Reader of the Runes trilogy? That’s a question we asked ourselves many times before finalizing the songwriting process.“ Damna and Aydan explain. "Working both on ROTR Part 2 and Part 3 at the same time, really helped us spread the songs, the lyrics and the atmospheres on the whole remaining part of the story as the development of the events needed a strong backing from the music. So, Part 2 is indeed darker, it needed to be tragic and violent and this gave us the chance to fully breathe the soundscape we already had in mind as we started to write songs in early 2020. We feel that with this album we have cast a milestone and set a further limit in what we can do by mixing wisely what we deeply love in metal. We are very satisfied with all the shades that compose these eleven songs; altogether they make a canvas we are very proud of. Part 3 instead will explore the disclosure of all the mysteries narrated in the first two chapters and for this very reason you'll have to expect even further  different musical nuances in the future of this trilogy."