Artist: Grand Magus
Title: Wolf God
Genre: Riff-laden, doomy MANOWAR inspired Metal
Release Date: 19th April 2019
Label: Nuclear Blast
Album Review
Good evening lords and ladies! GRAND MAGUS is back! I was waiting for this since the last outburst, ‘Sword Songs’, and I must admit I had a hard time feeling the groove of this new release. I had to hear it over and over again to finally appreciate the new material of one of my favourite Trve Metal bands. At first I had the AC/DC effect because many pieces sound similar to the older songs (which I truly love) I have to be honest this ain’t the best stuff GRAND MAGUS made but hey that’s nagging on a pretty high level. The trio from Stockholm still delivered a fine piece of Heavy Metal and producer Staffan Karlsson (ARCH ENEMY, FIREWIND, SPIRITUAL BEGGARS) did a good job casting the songs in steel. GRAND MAGUS is still the essence of metal in my eyes and I will still visit every gig, buy their merchandise and worship their Music but... I want songs like ‘I, The Jury’, ‘Hooves of Gold’ and so on, JB can hit the high notes and that’s where my heart is. Albums like ‘Hammer of the North’, ‘The Hunt’ and ‘Triumph and Power’ will always be like a testament for me, a holy script.
Now to the songs... I will not review everyone in itself, only highlights for you my dear reader. The Intro ‘Gold and Glory’ is, of course, great like every instrumental of GRAND MAGUS, a northern fairy-tale gone Metal (one could imagine those instrumentals for Tolkien adaptions). The ‘Wolf God’ is an old friend and a returning topic in GRAND MAGUS’ storytelling; it’s epic, loud and typical GRAND MAGUS material (the mid tempo metal hymn). ‘Spear Thrower’ is an up-tempo ode to Odin the all-father but I like ‘To live and die in Solitude’ a bit more it is a rather grim outlook text wise but a slow head-banger and a nice piece. ‘He sent them all to Hell’ is, and I wonder why no one mentioned that before me, a song that reminds me very much of MOTÖRHEAD, just check it out and tell me what you think on Facebook. My personal favourite is ‘A Hall clad in Gold’. It’s epic, it is an awesome hymn and it’s quite intense. The last one to mention is ‘Untamed” - it’s a slow-burn but a head-banger in its own rights.
Tracklist
01. Intro: Gold and Glory (Instrumental)
02. Wolf God
03. A Hall clad in Gold
04. Brother of the Storm
05. Dawn of Fire
06. Spear Thrower
07. To live and die in Solitude
08. Glory to the Brave
09. He sent them all to Hell
10. Untamed
Line-up
Janne “JB” Christoffersson - Guitar, Vocals
Mats Fox Hedén Skinner - Bass
Ludwig Witt - Drums
Website
https://www.grandmagus.com / https://www.facebook.com/grandmagusofficial
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 9
Sound: 8
Total: 8.5 / 10
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