Review: The Hunt, Grand Magus

I first discovered Swedish metal band Grand Magus last year on Pandora, and quickly bought their (then) latest album, Hammer Of The North, and it instantly became my favorite album of 2011. Doing my usual obsessive bit with a band I tabbed as my new favorite, I dug into their catalog and bought all of their earlier albums except the first. And they were good, but what was interesting was listening to the evolution of their sound. Grand Magus have been labeled doom metal and sludge metal, and  Monument, their second album, was appropriately heavy and ponderous, but I found it to be just a little too slow and monotonous to my taste (admittedly, doom metal is not a real favorite of mine). But with each successive album they allowed their sound to mature and develop till you had 2010's Hammer Of The North,  which to me seemed the perfect marriage of the power and heaviness of their stoner metal past with soaring melodies and galloping speed of more traditional power metal.

Understandably, then, I was quite excited to learn they released a new album this summer, The Hunt,  and just as understandably apprehensive when I realized that Grand Magus, rather than standing pat with the formula that made the last album great, continued to evolve their sound. My first listen through seemed to indicate that the band had evolved themselves right out of the sweet spot of doom and power metal from Hammer Of The North and into something that seemed thinner and more bland. I cringed, wondering if it was all over?

But then something happened. I put the album aside for a week or so, listened to some other stuff, then came back to it this past weekend so I could write this review. And found the album freaking rocks. Now that I've had a little time to let it settle and germinate, I realized I love these songs.

Yes, it's not as crushingly heavy as their older stuff, but all of the other elements I love about the band are still there: epic riffs, driving, head-banging groove, and excellent lyrics and vocals from JB Christoffersson. And the ever present Viking theme.

In lesser bands, there is the danger of being too silly or cheesy by sticking to such a motif, but for Grand Magus, it really works for them. They fully embrace their Norse heritage and delve into its richness to provide a compelling texture to their music. They sidestep endless re-hashing of the Ring of the Nibelung or songs that say, gee, wouldn't it be great to go a viking? Instead, Grand Magus goes deeper, creating characters and POVs that seem to breath and inhabit a genuine sense of their Norse ancestry.

Of course, it could just be the way that Christoffersson delivers his lyrics that give them such weight. I'm not always a fan of European singers for whom English is a second language. Sometimes the accent comes through, other times their phrasing just seems off, like they are singing it phonetically. That's excepting the occasions, of course, when they are growling, grunting or what not in their best death metal fashion. Christoffersson, however, has quickly become one my favorite vocalists--not just out of the European singers, but all metal singers. His voice just fits perfectly the songs he is singing, and he is able to deliver the band's themes in a way that make you believe them without falling into the traps of being self-aware irony ("It's Vikings, wink-wink") or over-earnest metal geekery ("Thor is so friggin' awesome, dude, seriously").

Stand out tracks for me are "Draksadd," "Sword of the Ocean," and "Storm King," but honestly, none of them strike me as being skippable. "Son Of The Last Breath" initially seemed to be that song, so atypical is its opening, with droning vocals, violins, and folk tune feel to it, but it serves as kind of a nice change of pace for the first couple of minutes before it cranks itself up into full blown metal.

All in all, this is a great album by an awesome band. Hammer Of The North remains for me their best album, but The Hunt is a close second.

My rating: 5 Valkyries out of 5

FOOD REVIEW: G BURGER

FOOD REVIEW: G BURGER

I discovered G Burgers in La Habra a few months back, and I keep going back because I absolutely love this place. It’s a gourmet level burger for a good price and everything is fresh, cooked to order, and excellent.

I normally get their regular burger with bacon and teriyaki onions but I have also tried their caprese burger with fresh mozzarella and garlic aioli. Both are extremely good, but the caprese may just be my new favorite…it’s amazing how well the flavors all worked together.

The burgers are all cooked to order, with medium seeming to be their default preference. I usually get mine medium well and it is still plenty juicy and flavorful.

The real star of the show, however, is the garlic parmesan fries. Dear lord do I love these—I would come out here to order these alone! Crispy fries coated in garlic and parmesan cheese—this is truly where life does not get any better.

GBurger

421 E La Habra Blvd
La Habra, CA 90631

(562) 245-7208

www.gburger.com

Five Difficulties to Overcome When Starting a Blog

You may be thinking about starting a blog. You may be thinking that you are finally going to do something with the idea you've been contemplating for months now. You might even have some glimmer of hope that we are here to make the process easier. We might have a few things to make the process easier.

We might not.

Here are a few of things we hammered at before getting Imperial Steamworkers Union up:

1. Coming up with a workable concept. Ty came up with ours. I thought it was a darn good idea. Once we decided to move on the idea, I spent a an hour coming up with a list of possible post topics. This post was not on the list.
2. Picking a platform. The two biggest are Wordpress and Blogger. Ty knew how to make a theme for Blogger. The decision was obvious at that point.
3. Naming the silly thing. This was more trouble than either of us thought it would be. Most of our ideas were so good, others had snatched them up years ago. A few extremely intelligent and obscure names were too obscure to be practical. I managed to tweak an idea Ty had for the name to come up with something new. (For those keeping score at home, that half-point was my contribution to the blog process.)
4. Coordinating with others (optional). If you are going to have help with your blog, make sure you decide how you are going to communicate with each other. Sounds obvious.  Too obvious...
5. Writing the first post. Let’s be honest: the only people that are going to read your first post are you, people you point to it, and a few extremely intelligent strangers. Don’t waste time buttering up your audience with the first one. When the blog starts attracting new visitors, they will concentrate more on the newer posts.

The upside to getting the first post laid down is there is nothing left stopping you from churning out the brilliant ideas you were waiting to write.

Good luck!