Grand Magus
Sword Songs
Nuclear Blast
2016
Eight albums into their career and while staying relatively true to their sound and influences, the refinement and cleanup of their sound experienced over the past few albums tends to take something away from the Swedish riff masters… even though their 70s and 80s heavy/doom/rock influences are still there, “Sword Songs” feels increasingly like it tries too hard and therefore somewhat fails… but at least not badly…
“Freja’s Choice” is probably over-convoluted” and quite clean, but manages to appease with its driving riff and elating chorus eruptions.
“Varangian” is more epic and feels like a poor take on Manowar and Domine and not as good… I mean Argus, from the States are a similar band that manage to sound epic without sounding pretentious and my god, if found that song pretentious then the chants of “Viking” Metal on “Forged in Iron - Crowned in Steel” make the toes curl uncontrollably, it doesn’t get any more derivative or cliché but at least it’s driven by a better riff…
“Born for Battle (Black Dog of Broceliande)” is I guess OK, in a similar way, but this “epic” inclination that has been particularly prevalent in the past few albums is taking Grand Magus away from the darker doomier past towards a much cheesier “valley”… then again a few bands that used to be good have turned into “spectacles” rather successfully, so why not...
“Last One to Fall” keeps the same Valhalla type of lyrics, but thankfully it’s heavier and quite “not cheesy”.
“Frost and Fire” begins similarly but strays a bit into more hard rock territory courtesy of its riff, which however is the sole thing that keeps it interesting.
“Hugr” is more or less incidental noises and some soft theme and segues into “Everyday There’s a Battle to Fight” a rather sturdy but completely corny number. It’s possibly worse and definitely sung far worse than Manowar’s “Die for Metal”… meh…
“In for the Kill” would have been a much better choice, but it was reserved for the digipack only, along with an average, quite blunt cover of Deep Purple’s “Stormbringer”… with JB unable to quite match the vocal prowess of the original.
Grand Magus’ greatest strength seems to be turning into their Achilles heel, as they “clean up” their act, but fail to sound as majestic as they wish they were… I’d consider a return to darker and gloomier paths a wise investment…
“Freja’s Choice” is probably over-convoluted” and quite clean, but manages to appease with its driving riff and elating chorus eruptions.
“Varangian” is more epic and feels like a poor take on Manowar and Domine and not as good… I mean Argus, from the States are a similar band that manage to sound epic without sounding pretentious and my god, if found that song pretentious then the chants of “Viking” Metal on “Forged in Iron - Crowned in Steel” make the toes curl uncontrollably, it doesn’t get any more derivative or cliché but at least it’s driven by a better riff…
“Born for Battle (Black Dog of Broceliande)” is I guess OK, in a similar way, but this “epic” inclination that has been particularly prevalent in the past few albums is taking Grand Magus away from the darker doomier past towards a much cheesier “valley”… then again a few bands that used to be good have turned into “spectacles” rather successfully, so why not...
“Last One to Fall” keeps the same Valhalla type of lyrics, but thankfully it’s heavier and quite “not cheesy”.
“Frost and Fire” begins similarly but strays a bit into more hard rock territory courtesy of its riff, which however is the sole thing that keeps it interesting.
“Hugr” is more or less incidental noises and some soft theme and segues into “Everyday There’s a Battle to Fight” a rather sturdy but completely corny number. It’s possibly worse and definitely sung far worse than Manowar’s “Die for Metal”… meh…
“In for the Kill” would have been a much better choice, but it was reserved for the digipack only, along with an average, quite blunt cover of Deep Purple’s “Stormbringer”… with JB unable to quite match the vocal prowess of the original.
Grand Magus’ greatest strength seems to be turning into their Achilles heel, as they “clean up” their act, but fail to sound as majestic as they wish they were… I’d consider a return to darker and gloomier paths a wise investment…