Why is nobody using the #Krull theme music for the ice dancing in the #WinterOlympics? Don't let Zimmer monopolise things.

THINGS THAT SHOULD BE SAID ON T SHIRTS

Must haves in a have not world!

Art with a subtle cultural critique and a long backstory in a large multi-universe.

The magic of my youth.

Did you know putting book covers on shirts communicates a great deal.to another person all at once? Helps to combat global bug farming.

Suggest other T-Shirt ideas please!
E.g. Death Ray

#Krull #Dragonlance #StarWars

#DrStevenNyx
#ArachneDesigns
#ArachnidToday
#JackLChalker #WhenTheChangeWindsBlow
#ShamanDeGreene

Review: Templar: Conquering Swords

Release date: 27 February 2026

Label: Jawbreaker Records

Gage J. Tolin

Sweden’s heavy metal warriors TEMPLAR return from the forge with their highly awaited debut full-length album, “Conquering Swords” – a triumph of steel, melody, and unyielding spirit. Out February 27th 2026 on Jawbreaker Records, this album sees TEMPLAR fully realize the potential shown on their “Black Knight” demo and “Treacherous Beast” single, striking with the precision and might of seasoned conquerors.

Recorded under the guiding hand of Staffan Tengnér (Century), “Conquering Swords” carries that unmistakable warmth and authenticity that you’ll recognize from the “Treacherous Beast” 7″ as well as Century’s albums. The production balances raw energy with clarity, allowing every soaring guitar harmony and pounding bassline to shine through. The final blade was sharpened by Patrick W. Engel at Temple of Disharmony, whose mastering lends the album its thunderous and timeless power.

Across its ten tracks, “Conquering Swords” leads listeners through a world of high adventure and medieval grandeur – a realm where valor, betrayal and destiny collide. Dual guitars blaze like clashing steel, while galloping rhythms and anthemic choruses summon visions of distant fortresses and moonlit battlefields. In short, TEMPLAR continue to tend to the flame of true Heavy Metal first ignited by Heavy Load and other golden era bands from the First Wave of Swedish Heavy Metal.

With Isak Neffling’s commanding vocals and thundering bass, Mille Lundström’s relentless drumming, and the dueling guitars of Teddy Edoff and Gustav Harrysson, Templar are raiding the banner of Heavy Metal high – pure, unfiltered heavy metal with heart, honor, and hooks to spare. So raise your swords and heed the call to arms! The conquest begins February 27th, 2026.

For fans of: Century, Heavy Load, Onyx, Overdrive, Mercyful Fate and Axewitch.

LINE-UP
Isak Neffling – Vocals & Bass
Gustav Harrysson – Guitars
Teddy Edoff – Guitars
Mille Lundström – Drums

Review

“Gates of Angmar (Intro)” began with the tolling of a bell and some appropriate ambiance that sounded ripped straight out of an 80s movie like Conan or Krull (underrated movie btw). The galloping of horses hooves patter along as the synth-laden introduction builds to a crescendo alongside booming drums. A disembodied voice of pure evil snarls out some dark lines, though its own corruption made its worse impossible to decipher, but it could only beckon doom.

With a sizzling riff “Witchking” kicked off with a bang, followed closely by an evil laugh and a truly dastardly lead riff that conveyed the same sense of dread as the initial riff in Black Sabbath’s eponymous track or Venom’s “Don’t Burn the Witch”. In fact, while Templar’s sound is undoubtedly rooted in their forefathers of the epic metal scene like Heavy Load and Manilla Road, there is a pronounced Venom influence throughout that I found oddly refreshing. In a way, rather than epic metal, this almost sounds like just evil power metal, there’s such a degree of malice behind every note of the guitars, every thump of the bass, and every crash of the drums. Neffling’s quieter approach to the vocals here give it an even greater sense of foreboding. Including the intro track alongside it, it’s one hell of a mood-setter to start off!

“Excalibur” showcased another strong riff, but also some disgusting (good thing) basslines that really shined a spotlight on the production and mixing for the bass in particular. It reminds me a lot of one of my favorite bass tones on an album, Satan’s Court in the Act (which I now realize is another act of whom Templar draws from). The evilness of the prior two tracks is somewhat prevalent still here, but in a different light, here it feels less all-encompassing and more subtle. Almost as though here we see the tale from the hero’s perspective, raising that iconic blade before they seek to vanquish evil. One of the shorter tracks on the album, but one that I found myself quite enjoying. The weird distorted ending drew my curiosity as well.

Now it’s time for the drummer to shine with “Rainbow’s End”, which started with Mille Lundström hitting his set hard and not once letting up. Moreover, I found Neffling’s vocal cadence to be a true ear-worm here, as well as where I really felt like he, and Templar’s lyrics, took center stage. Though it was certainly Lundström’s track to strut his stuff behind the kit, and he surely did, this was still chock full of an infectious chorus and some killer guitar work from the tandem twosome of Harrysson and Edoff. The Century influence is also quite strong with this one, though, as a fan of that band, that wasn’t something I had issue with.

“Exiled in Fire” had another slick guitar riff to start off, and carry on throughout the song, but again I found the production to be a true stand-out here. It gives the track, and the album as a whole, a nice amount of polish but without losing that rawness that I feel like metal should have. Really great lyrical work here, perfect stuff to imagine a scene (i pictured a dragon torching a village at one point). This was one that had its foot on the gas from the outset and never once slowed down, good stuff here.

https://youtu.be/58kapJ6OB4g

“The Sorceress” started off with a nice slow and moody guitar intro, with Neffling delivering his vocals just like the King himself (Diamond, not Elvis). The incredible sustains on the guitar in the background, accompanied nicely by the gradual thumping of the bass, gave the track a sense of mystique almost. It reminded me a bit of the rhythm portion of Scorpions “Sails of Charon”, like if you remove Uli’s incredible lead work and just focus on the bass and rhythm guitars. This change in tempo already makes the track a standout on the album, and Neffling’s vocals are a huge part of that, but the moodiness of the guitars simply propelled this one to another plane for me. The increase in speed as the track rushes to the end was the cherry on top. Great stuff, might be my favorite thus far.

In keeping with theme, “Trident” started off with another nice guitar riff, though this one more subdued than previous efforts. The prevailing gallop throughout the track gave it a nice Iron Maiden feel, and I could almost picture Bruce himself singing it. While catchy and sound all the way through, this was the shortest track on the album and did feel a bit like filler to some degree. However, it was far from what I’d call “bad”.

The three longest tracks on the album (each totaling over 5 minutes) are set to close it out, and first up is “Shipwreck”. A nice build-up gave way to a riff that I can only describe as funky, the interplay between the bass and the guitar carried an extra bit of magic along with it. This one reminded me a bit of post-reformation Angel Witch, but I couldn’t quite place as to exactly why. While another solid, if not good, track, I felt that this one plodded along just a bit too long and didn’t seem to reach that next gear that I felt like it was building towards.

“White Wolf”, which I assume to be named after Geralt of Rivia, began with a moody synth-laden intro that felt very much like the opening track for some black metal albums (Emperor springs to mind). This one leaned back into the Mercyful Fate and King Diamond side of things, something that I think Templar is exceptional at. The grooving of the guitar and the general vibes put out really harken me to my favorite tracks on the album. There’s a slight delay in the main riff that isn’t always there, but when it is, it just adds so much to the overall track.

“Conquering Swords” had a sort of dirge-like opening that was incredibly bass-heavy, some exquisite bass too, I might add. Ooh that drumroll was grand, straight outta the Manowar playbook, and the riff that followed was perfection. This same energy carried throughout the track, and it was something that I couldn’t find the right word for to describe it. “Epic” felt too overdone, but it felt the closest (“adventurous” maybe?). The incredible bridge portion where the guitars slow down and the bits of synth subtly return gave it an extra bit of flair as the track moved into its final phase, before ending with the crescendo of a thunderclap.

Conclusion

Templar’s debut full-length continues, and in some ways, perfects the style they set forth on their Treacherous Beast 7″. I was a huge fan of that little sneak preview into their career and I’m please to say that their debut is a worthy follow-up to it. Neffling’s vocals manage to be both similar and completely different on nearly every track, and on top of that, many of the tracks feature entirely different vibes to them. With a nice retro-tinged production job and absolutely littered with incredible riffs, drumming, and some seriously scintillating basslines, this is a great record. While every track may not be precisely what I want in my heavy metal, the ones that felt like they were for me all hit pretty damn hard. “The Sorceress” is probably my pick for my favorite on the album, but “Witchking” comes in a close second, followed by the final two tracks. Also, bonus points for the sick cover art, love that old-school adventure novel vibe.

TheNwothm Score: 8.5/10

Links

Bandcamp: https://jawbreakerrecords.bandcamp.com/album/conquering-swords

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/templarsweden

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/templar.band

Label: Jawbreaker Records

Read More Reviews

• Review: Templar: Conquering Swords

  30th Jan 2026

• REVIEW: ZEPTER – “ZEPTER”

  28th Jan 2026

• Review: Ravenspell- “Obsidian King”

  24th Jan 2026

• Review: Fili Bibiano’s Fortress “Death Is Your Master” 2026

  23rd Jan 2026

#axewitch #BlackSabbath #Century #Conan #debutAlbumRelease #HeavyLoad #HeavyMetal #IronMaiden #JawbreakerRecords #kingDiamond #Krull #manillaRoad #mercyfulFate #NewWaveOfTraditionalHeavyMetal #NWOTHM #Onyx #Overdrive #Review #satan #scorpions #SwedishHeavyMetal #templar #thenwothm #thenwothmCom

Ich habe vor ein paar Tagen auf einen Kanal, dem ich folge ein Video entdeckt.

„KRULL..Why It’s Far Better Than You Remember“

Ich habe den Film in meiner Jugend in den USA sehr oft gesehen. Ein Kumpel hatte ihn auf VHS und ich habe ihn in überraschend guter Erinnerung.

Ich stellte fest, dass den nicht zum streamen gibt, aber wohl auf Konserve. Also habe ich mir in der Bucht ein Media-Book mit DVD / Blue Ray geschossen.

Die Frage: #KRULL jetzt schauen, oder später?

https://youtu.be/xNKUQoZ10f4

CWRU Sci-Fi Marathon liveblog 2026

Spent the weekend at the 51st CWRU Sci-Fi Movie Marathon.

Like last year, I used the OpenVibe app to auto-crosspost my liveblogging to both Mastodon and Bluesky. The app has threading now! So these are in slightly-longer chunks of text than last year, because I could split a longer reaction across multiple threads and post them all at once.

…But the overall text is shorter, in part because I swear the breaks between movies were seriously cut down this year. There was a lot of “I had a longer thought here, but the next thing is already starting, so I have to finish typing as fast as possible (with my coat draped over my phone so the light isn’t bothering everyone else) and hit send.”

(Friday)

Jan 16, 2026, 03:37 PM

Gearing up to liveblog #Marathon51! (Would be really nice if my country could avoid doing anything apocalyptically stupid and/or murderous in the next 48 hours…)

Jan 16, 2026, 08:07 PM

#Marathon51 was supposed to start Superman at 8pm, and opening safety announcements didn’t start until 8:05. Is this the fastest we’ve ever fallen behind schedule? Might be!

Jan 16, 2026, 08:36 PM

#Marathon51 here we go!

First few trailers are all straightforwardly “movies on the schedule later.”

Cartoon was a lackluster Super Mouse, but then we got a Special Message From James Gunn. “I regret that I can’t be with you all in Cleveland tonight…” :3

Jan 16, 2026, 10:54 PM

Still a good movie. Funny and fast-paced enough that it’s enjoyable even when you know where it’s going, and it really benefits from the energy of an audience to cheer at the good bits.

And hey, I know a bunch of those places! I saw them film one of those scenes!

A few gripes. (Should’ve passed the Bechdel test. Jimmy, be less exasperated that a hot woman with a head for strategy is into you. James Gunn, why give us a version of Con-El with that ending?) Nothing movie-ruining. Still fun.

Next is Surprise 1! (Was due to start at 10:40.)

Previews: a bunch of commercials, sports promos, and local news clips? And the intro to Alien Autopsy, complete with srs bsns Will Riker…

Jan 16, 2026, 11:46 PM

Fire alarm! Somebody took their eye off a popcorn machine. The alarm went off at exactly the moment the movie went “Intermission”, leading to mass confusion about “Wait, is this part of it, or…?”

So now we’re all huddling out in the cold. Yay.

(Saturday)

Jan 17, 2026, 12:27 AM

Surprise 1 is the reason they were handing out 3D glasses on the way in! Robot Monster (1953), B&W, deeply terrible. They have a slapdash plot, a max of 3 sets, even the 3D effects seem glitchy.

[Future note while editing this post: The whole MST3K version of Robot Monster is on Youtube, if you want to share in our torment.]

A surprising Bechdel pass. (Mom and kid daughter talk about one of the girl’s friends.)

Preceded by a Bugs Bunny cartoon, and another supposedly-3D short of a guy singing while doing impressions.

If I knew any of those 1950s celebrities, maybe it would’ve been funny. As-is, it had people yelling “Can we put on Solaris instead?”

Jan 17, 2026, 12:52 AM

Sweet little bonus feature, a documentary clip about the guy who made it his mission to restore these old 3D films, including both the pieces played here.

Good for him.

Starting now: Parasite, scheduled to start at 12:20.

Opening cartoon: Concerto in 3D, a little music piece with CGI instruments. It’s giving AniMusic. And the depth effects on this one worked much better. I like it.

[Note from the future: …It just literally was AniMusic. Nice.]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYAyP2RRLIc

Jan 17, 2026, 02:32 AM

Parasite (1982) was also in 3D, with a behind-the-scenes look at the restoration efforts!

…And it was enough of a Gross Bug Movie that I took the opportunity to rest my eyes. (Too early to fall asleep, but I gave them a break, at least.)

Next featurette: “The Animal World“, a lil dinosaur documentary. Claymation! Painted backdrops! A really beautiful job of it, even with the “oh no, we’ve figured out that’s not how that worked” of the science.

Next movie: Dinosaurs! (1960), was scheduled to start at 2am

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nin4Q4vOxUM

Jan 17, 2026, 04:22 AM

Dinosaurs was a lot of fun. Surprisingly modern/natural-feeling dialogue, lots of comedy bits that aged well, the hateable villain got a Disney death, the plucky kid got to ride a brontosaurus.

Not everyone part of it aged well (Bechdel fail, too) but overall, a good time.

Next up is THX 1138, which I’m sure I’ve seen before, and plan to sleep through. (Scheduled for 3:40.)

Trailer for Krull, two neat ads for THX, trailer from when “Revenge of the Jedi” was the title…

And our opening cartoon was a weird lil SW thing. With more of the “riding dinosaurs” theme.

Jan 17, 2026, 06:02 AM

gonna sleep through Mad Max too, just wanted y’all to know our pre-movie cartoon is Gumby Racers

Jan 17, 2026, 09:49 AM

Woke up just in time for the start of Robinson Crusoe On Mars, the Tomb-Buster-era intermediate step between Robinson Crusoe and The Martian. It was fine. I liked the monkey. (I hope the monkey was treated well on-set.)

Bechdel fail. I know most of the movie was 1 character talking to himself, but there were no women anywhere in the whole thing. Except the monkey.

Lilo And Stitch starting now. (Set to start at 9:15.) Will have to nap, on account of It’s So Good (it’s the original) But I’ve Seen It And I’m Tired.

Jan 17, 2026, 11:36 AM

Saturday Morning Cartoon Break, aka “playing a bunch of cartoon opening themes, try to gauge the age of the audience by how many people sing along.”

…Although it was way shorter than last year’s. Tactic to make up time? Surprise 2 was set for 11:30.

Cartoon for this one: Charade (1984 film)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUqWGpvUpas

Jan 17, 2026, 11:54 AM

Oh, wow, that mystery Star Wars cartoon was a clip from the Holiday Special? With no relation to the rest of the special? Huh.

Trailers included the alien Gonzo movie, Ed Wood, and now we get “A Tale of Two Kitties”… in which a proto Tweety Bird faces two cats who must not have gotten a fan base, I don’t even recognize them…

Oh no, their names are Babbit and Catstello ❤

Jan 17, 2026, 01:49 PM

Surprise 2 was The Cat From Outer Space! Extremely red old print. Looks like they were dedicated to using An Actual Cat for all the cat scenes. I dozed off toward the end, but it looks like the good guys won.

Losing track of Bechdel passes here. The site where I double-check them isn’t loading. Kinda suspect Lilo And Stitch is the only other pass since the first.

Next up, we’re learning about ALGOL:

Jan 17, 2026, 01:58 PM

But seriously, we’re watching this: Algol (1920)

With an “Out of the Inkwell” short to open.

The coding PP was to give our live score player time to set up his gear.

Jan 17, 2026, 04:01 PM

As tends to happen with these, I ended up losing Algol’s plot, just closing my eyes and enjoying the live music. (The player called it something like “one of the craziest films I’ve done this for…”)

Weird fable about an alien giving one guy a perpetual motion machine, so he becomes a monopolist tyrant. There’s some “labor-saving devices are immoral” subtext, but also some classic “unfettered capitalism lets the worst people hoard power.” Literally!

Krull was set to start at 3:40. No cartoon, just going right into it.

Jan 17, 2026, 06:03 PM

Krull was the expected fun fantasy epic. Villains in spiky black armor, comic-relief shapeshifter, bandits with hearts of gold, shiny magic weapon of destiny. I like how the evil castle was built like a body: the architecture is giant bones and blood vessels, the kidnapped queen is under watch in an eye socket, the interior guards wear white as in blood cells.

Needed more women. I got my hopes up in the first 5 minutes when the FL got to grab a sword, but nope, kidnapped. She did get to be a turning point in the final showdown, at least.

Suspicious voiceover about “ruling a galaxy” that never came into the plot. I wonder if they were angling for the Star Wars audience. Could’ve paid off that idea in a sequel if it got funded!…which it looks like it did not.

[Note from the future: Post-Krull was the point when Dad let me know he was having a Weird Medical Issue, which had just upgraded into a Concerning Medical Issue, so we walked over to the ER across the street to get it checked out. It never actually got worse than Concerning…which meant the next few hours involved a lot of “sitting around waiting for doctors who had a few minutes to spare between handling Acutely Dangerous Medical Issues.”]

[Lucky I wasn’t planning to watch Dune anyway, huh…? Texted someone still in the theater to find out what Surprise 3 was, and, good news, I was okay with missing that too.]

Jan 17, 2026, 09:56 PM

Skipped out on Dune 2 (saw the first one, wasn’t dying to see what happened next).

Surprise 3 is Repo! The Genetic Opera, which I remember fandom being really into for a hot minute? …almost 20 years ago, wow. Didn’t feel the need to see it then, hasn’t changed since.

Cartoon was The Rabbit Of Seville.

Anyone who was into Repo, is there…any kind of thematic connections here? Or does the Film Society just really like showing The Rabbit Of Seville?

Jan 17, 2026, 10:29 PM

The internet argues over whether Dune 2 is a Bechdel pass (all conversations come back to Paul, not slowly).

Repo is an easy pass, though! Possibly just our third one of the night.

(Sunday)

[Future note: At some point after midnight, the doctors told Dad “the tests we’ve done so far haven’t figured out what caused the Concerning Issue, and it hasn’t stopped on its own either, so we want you to stay here overnight.” So I went back to the theater, to get some food, attempt a nap, and see the last movie.]

Jan 18, 2026, 01:17 AM

Eyes resting for the back half of Frankenhooker…but from what I heard, I enjoyed the ending.

Mickey 17 was scheduled to start at 12:40. Trailers running now…

[Normally I wrap up the liveblog when the last movie ends! This time, there’s a big pause while I’m wrangling our gear — a couple things got dropped off with Dad, a lot of it got stashed in his car to go home with him eventually, the rest went home with me — and arranging a ride.]

Jan 18, 2026, 04:31 AM

Marathon51 over. Mickey 17 was trying to be at least 5 different movies at once, and I liked at least 3 of them, so it worked out.

Now I’m home and the cats are fed, which for them is the big hit news of the weekend ❤

[The doctors finally found something that stopped the Concerning Issue on Sunday afternoon! And Dad has reported feeling fine ever since. Everybody cross your fingers that keeps up.]

#Dinosaurs #Krull #LiloAndStitch #MadMax #marathon #Mickey17 #StarWars #Superman #THX1138

#Marathon51 #Krull was the expected fun fantasy epic. Villains in spiky black armor, comic-relief shapeshifter, bandits with hearts of gold, shiny magic weapon of destiny. I like how the evil castle was built like a body: the architecture is giant bones and blood vessels, the kidnapped--

--becomes a monopolist tyrant. There's some "labor-saving devices are immoral" subtext, but also some classic "unfettered capitalism lets the worst people hoard power." Literally!

#Krull was set to start at 3:40. No cartoon, just going right into it.

I finally rewatched Krull and it was better than I was expecting. I think it's one of those movies where you have to think of it as a local play: you don't expect the special effects to be great, but you hope for some good writing and some good acting, and some interesting story developments, which there were. And there was a rich background to the planet's mythology as well. And honestly inside the Beast's lair was bizarre and interesting.

For those of you who haven't seen it, it's like...Knights of the Round Table...in Space...with a cyclops.

Freddie Jones and Alun Armstrong were both quite good I think.

#Krull
#krull_1983
#MovieReview

It's my 51st birthday today and I choose to spend it watching #Krull.

Gustav Groth
H. Krull
Neustrelitz…
Read More

2025-3746
https://privatsammlungen.net/2025-3746/
#Groth #Krull #Neustrelitz #photography #antique #collecting

#AfricanFilmPoster #GhanaFilmPoster
In Ghana 🇬🇭 when posters can't be imported, local artists will bootleg them to the best of their abilities. Some often are more imaginative than the official studio releases.

#Krull (1983)
A prince and a fellowship of companions set out to rescue his bride from a fortress of alien invaders who have arrived on their home planet, Krull.

Nick Maley was a special effects make-up artist who worked on horror and sci-fi films such as Lifeforce, Highlander, the awesome Krull, and the Star Wars movies where he is closely associated with Yoda. He runs a museum of memorabilia, props, photos, storyboards, scripts, etc. and we visited today while in Phillipsburg, Sint Maarten. Nerd heaven, and we had a great chat with him too.

#SciFi #Travel #SintMaarten #Phillipsburg #StarWars #NickMaley #Krull #SpecialEffects #Cruise

@cocaine_owlbear Thanks for the recommendation. I just finished their Swamp Thing ep and started their Krull ep. #monsterdon #SwampThing #Krull

Silver Screen Cult Classics needs YOU! What are your thoughts on the movie #krull ???

What’s New in Home Video & Pop Culture – September 16th, 2025 – Jurassic World: Rebirth, Krull, Ballerina, High and Low, Ghost in the Shell and more. Details here https://bit.ly/4nxtVxK

#NewReleases #film #bluray #4K #graphicnovel #JurassicWorldRebirth #Krull #Ballerina #Elio

“The 1983 film #Krull is coming to 4K UHD Blu-ray SteelBook on September 16th …”

https://highdefdiscnews.com/2025/06/13/the-1983-film-krull-comes-to-4k-in-september/