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
