Nuclear Blast – Out Now.
It is official ladies and gentlemen: what people my age call “classic” and the younger generation refers to as “retro” Heavy Metal is back in fashion! All you have to do is visit a few devoted music forums and you will find countless names of young bands that worship Iron Maiden and kiss the ground Rob Halford has set foot on.
Need a few names? How about White Wizard, Skeletonwitch and Bonded by Blood, to name a few. Actually, it is ex-members from these very bands that decided to form Holy Grail back in 2008 – a band that has caught the attention of Nuclear Blast and with the help of which they are now releasing their second studio album entitled “Ride The Void”.
Solid Metal riffs and harmonic sing-along choruses like those performed by the late 80s European Hard Rock bands make my heart beat a tad faster, but the truth is that there is hardly any riff or melody that has not been performed by thousands of bands & artists these last thirty years. If you approach “Ride The Void” in the hope of listening to something unique then you will be mightily disappointed.
If, on the other hand, what you expect or hope to get from this album is light-hearted entertainment then you are definitely in the right place. Eli Santana & Alex Lee have prepared some solid riffs and flamboyant leads for you to enjoy, the former sometimes bordering on Thrash Metal territory, while James-Paul Luna’s vocal performances portray him as a man with a good understanding of what constitutes a decent melody.
“Archeus” is too short and ‘generic’ in terms of approach to indicate what is to be expected of this album but things become much clearer once Luna’s Hard Rock vocals start spewing energy and venom in equal portions. Classic 80s Metal is celebrated through anthems such as “Dark Passenger”, while the chorus of “Bleeding Stone” and “Ride The Void” bring to the surface the band’s melodic side.
The Helloween-influenced Thrasher “Crosswinds” is sandwiched between “Too Decayed To Wait” and “Take It To The Grave”, both of which put much emphasis on their melodic choruses; however it is the beautiful harmonic leads of “Sleep Of Virtue” that really steal the show. The remaining four compositions of the album are pretty good at “delivery”, but not original in terms of appeal, with the Helloween-influenced melody of “Silence The Scream” and the flamboyant solo of “The Great Artifice” making an honest attempt to win a few more converts for this Californian quintet.
The way you connect with “Ride The Void”, if this happens at all, will mainly depend on the expectations and the mood you first approach it with. When I first heard the thirteen compositions on offer here, I hadn’t listened to 80s Hard Rock and Heavy Metal for a long time and perhaps this put “Ride The Void” at a bit of an advantage in my assessment. I’m not certain how often I will be revisiting this album – what is guaranteed, though, is that when I do decide to listen to it, it will be a truly enjoyable experience.
John Stefanis
Rating: ***1/2 (3.5/5.0)
Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK
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Power Plays w/c 9 December 2024
In this sequence we play ‘The Best of 2024′ GRTR! reviewer selections
Featured Albums w/c 9 December 2024
09:00-12:00 The Best of 2024 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2024 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2024 (Singer Songwriter)
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