I was dying to listen to a band as Grand Magus. What’s in it? Nothing else and that’s exactly the point there’s nothing new about it just the good old Metal meets 1970’s Hard Rock drenched with generous doses of Blues Rock. “Sunraven” is an album that brings back the glorious days of early Metal. As a matter of fact, “Sunraven” was inspired by the revered Old English epic poem of Beowulf. In early heavy metal style, the band wrote nine new songs dive deep into heroic fantasy, as it is usual with Metal music. After all, Grand Magus are no youngsters at all, the band has been around 25 years in the scene.
The album commences with the magnificient “Skybound” with a strong taste of early 1980’s metal music. What immeadiately stands out is JB Christoffersson’s vocals with a mix of Ian Gillan’s overtones without the high pitches and the imponent notes of Ronnie James Dio. Pure trinitrotoluene – or TNT for the ones who don’t know the meaning of it. In modern terms, “Sunraven” could be considered a mix of Epic Doom Metal with Hard Rock due to the blues influences Grand Magus included here. To some extent, “The Black Lake” could have recorded by Rainbow in the late 1970’s. With Ronnie James Dio, of course. An epic tune with a guitar riff that saves the notes, but still is able to say it all. Guitar leads follow David Gilmour’s school of saying too much with very few notes full of emotion. Its riff is so powerful and, for that matter, gluey that it’s still in my mind. JB Christoffersson’s grave voice gives the tone its sense of urgency. It’s so hard to find such a voice nowadays when vocalists are either high-pitched or gutural oriented.
“Sunraven” is an album fo remarkable songs as “Hour of the Wolf,” a track that gathers together some speed embellished by powerful and amotional vocals and some shoegazed moments that strongen the emotional content of the tune. Crowining finale “The End Belongs to You” is also a wondrous piece full. To some extent, the track gathers all the qualities Grand Magus included in the album.
Grand Magus “Sunraven” will be released on October 18th via Nuclear Blast Records.
Track Listing
- Skybound
- The Wheel of Pain
- Sunraven
- Winter Storms
- The Black Lake
- Hour of the Wolf
- Grendel
- To Heorot
- The End Belongs to You
Watch “Skybound” official music video here:
I’m just a lucky guy who has chosen metal to live with for a long time. Metal changed my life for good. It made me more confident and stronger. Metalheads are naturally far away from the mass mediocrity and don’t accept impostures from anybody else. Metal is more than music, it’s a life changing oportunity!