Steve Grimmett’s Grim Reaper
Walking in the Shadows
Dissonance Productions
2016
Steve Grimmett spent a lot of his time after the dissolution of the original formation of Grim Reaper cutting an album with Onslaught and then finding a more permanent home in Lionsheart. He did release a couple of “solo” efforts in the 00s and actually after renaming his current solo band into “Steve Grimmett’s Grim Reaper” rather expectedly, he’s releasing the “4th” album… so to speak.
It does seem to actually try to replicate the melodic yet hard edged sound of the band, particularly the latter “Rock You to Hell” days of it, with the riffs of songs being quite reminiscent to the “era” material, but without resorting in self-plagiarism. The “weakest-link” is Steve himself, who’s no longer a spring chicken and no matter how hard he tries, is unable to come close to his younger self’s performances, in terms of fervor. He’s not terrible, but he’s aged and that’s sadly audible.
About half of the album is a cut above the rest, with tracks like the title cut, “Wings of Angels”, “Come Hell or High Water”, “From Hell” and a few more being inspired enough attempts, in a retro-minded “return” to the 80s style of the band, almost worth of the place beside the classic one’s in your collection, but not managing to really antagonize any of them seriously. It will probably satisfy the “fans”.
It does seem to actually try to replicate the melodic yet hard edged sound of the band, particularly the latter “Rock You to Hell” days of it, with the riffs of songs being quite reminiscent to the “era” material, but without resorting in self-plagiarism. The “weakest-link” is Steve himself, who’s no longer a spring chicken and no matter how hard he tries, is unable to come close to his younger self’s performances, in terms of fervor. He’s not terrible, but he’s aged and that’s sadly audible.
About half of the album is a cut above the rest, with tracks like the title cut, “Wings of Angels”, “Come Hell or High Water”, “From Hell” and a few more being inspired enough attempts, in a retro-minded “return” to the 80s style of the band, almost worth of the place beside the classic one’s in your collection, but not managing to really antagonize any of them seriously. It will probably satisfy the “fans”.