Sometimes, you just come across something on YouTube that makes a huge impression on you. You know, when you hear a song, and it wants to go away in your head. You even go and sing it. Riket or Kingdom, as the English translation would be, did that with this track, "Psykopaten" or English translation, "The psychopath". It's a cover, made by the punk band Asta Kask from the beginning. Riket, who plays death metal, has just made an awesome track even better. But very few know about this band, Riket, so some background info. The members of this band are no newcomers. They come from bands like Netherbird, Valkyrja, Hyperion, and Terminal Prospect. The single Psykopaten is recorded and produced by the mighty Tomas Skogsberg on Sunlight Studios ( yes, that famous Sunlight Studios ). And mastered by one of my idols in death metal, Dan Swanö, in his studio Unisound. Riket has been going since 2016, and a wild guess, a band like this will do an album, I mean, "Psykopaten" is not their first track. They have an EP from 2016, a live album from 2018, and another EP from 2020.

And in 2024, the single Strålskadad (Radiation-damaged), a cover of the Swedish punk band Rövsvett (Ass sweat) great song, was released. Rikest's version was recorded at Studio Sunlight and produced by Tomas Skogsberg. The song was recorded without click tracks, almost no dubbing, and no editing to mimic a live performance. But back to "Psykopaten", Riket has taken this awesome song and added a more cold, brutal, evil version of it. The clean bass guitar sound is there, the calm, but you hear how Nephente uses his growling voice to build up the tension, and the chorus is pure death metal. Then back to the calmer part again. They keep that storytelling alive. "Psykopaten" is not a nice song; the lyrics are brutal, but the way the song is made gives you another message. It does sound very melodic and beautiful.

I guess that Riket will never be a traditional death metal band. They have so many skillful members, and I am looking forward to what's to come. A band like Riket doesn't have any limits and has no reason to stay straight death metal, and we will hear it.