RAM – Against (Album Review)
Release date: 9 October 2026
Record Label: Metal Blade
The Riff Doctor's Score: (9/10)
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Diagnosis
Seven years away. All teeth on return. RAM strip heavy metal back to its beating heart on Against: vicious riffs, soaring twin guitars and a sound you can feel breathing. A defiant comeback and a serious contender for heavy metal album of the year.
Best Tracks: “Ghost Emperor”, “Abattoir”, “1984”, “Leaving”.
Deep Cuts: “Rising Again”, “The Final Hour”.
The Full Review
Seven years between albums is a long time in a scene that rarely stops releasing something. Since RAM last emerged with The Throne Within in 2019, the machinery has kept turning: more releases, more subgenres, more layers of digital polish. The Swedes, meanwhile, have continued to face the other way.
Against makes that position clear. Leaving behind the more spiritual and metaphysical concerns of its predecessor, the band returns with something grounded in anger, resistance and the refusal to give in. Oscar Carlquist’s rasping voice leads the charge, but the conviction runs through the entire record. These are leaner, more direct songs, played with enough fire to make their familiar foundations feel alive.
Producer Johan Reiven captures that approach at Studio Recordia in Varberg, Sweden. The recording has a wonderfully organic character: sharp guitars, a forceful rhythm section and room for the instruments to breathe. The sound recalls the recording spirit of classic Dio, MSG and Sweet, with the weight and clarity to let RAM’s own personality come through. You hear the attack of the playing rather than a production finish smoothing its edges.
“Obsession” establishes a tense atmosphere before “Ghost Emperor” delivers the first full blow. Harry Granroth and Martin Jonsson’s guitars weave dark, cutting harmonies around Tobias Petterson’s imposing bass foundation. There is something commanding about the whole performance, its classic eighties vocabulary carrying a menace that immediately justifies the long wait.
That authority takes a more anthemic shape on “One Vs. All”. Its theme of individual resistance meets a chorus built for a roomful of raised fists, while the twin guitars give it the unmistakable lift of heavy metal at its most combative. “Abattoir” turns the aggression up another notch. Brushing against speed metal and the harder edge of Accept, it is a ferocious blast whose directness is its greatest strength. “Out of Control” keeps the pressure on, heavy, urgent and entirely true to its title.
What makes Against so satisfying, though, is the feeling beneath the force. “Leaving” pulls back the pace and lets a more melancholic melody surface, without surrendering the anger running through the record. Some of its ideas date back to 2006, yet nothing about it feels like an old song dragged out to fill a gap. Its clean structure and emotional bite make it one of the album’s strongest moments.
The title track brings that anger into sharp focus. A furious declaration of refusal, it carries the record’s central conviction in a straightforward old school assault. “Night Blade” channels the same instinct through a superb central riff, drawing on the heavy metal of the seventies and early eighties. Simple, muscular and immediately effective, it is the kind of song that makes headbanging feel less like a choice than a reflex.
“Rising Again” adds a galloping pulse and beautifully harmonised guitars, its sense of perseverance giving the closing stretch another lift. By this point, RAM’s restraint has become a strength in itself: the songs know exactly where they are going, and every melodic flourish serves the momentum.
“1984” introduces a different rhythmic feel, with a distinctive drum pattern and an unsettling melody that gives its Orwell-inspired subject matter real tension. The song treats control and dystopia as present concerns, bringing a contemporary unease into the album’s traditional heavy metal language. It is among the most compelling cuts here, both musically and in the atmosphere it creates.
“The Final Hour” closes with the assurance of a band that understands the force of precision. There is no need to crowd the song with technical display when the playing already carries this much weight. It is a fitting finish to a record whose confidence comes from knowing exactly what matters.
Against is an outstanding heavy metal album, full of conviction and free of weak moments. Its natural production gives the songs room to hit hard, and RAM make every blow count. One of the year’s finest records in the genre. Seven years away have done nothing to blunt their teeth.
Jaime Gómez for The Riff Collective
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