Grand Magus - Sword Songs
Swedish metalheads bring classic metal into the 21st century
“I need metal in my life just like an eagle needs to fly” Manowar claimed on 2007’s ‘Die For Metal’. Grand Magus’ brand of metal is similarly epic, and suitably, new album Sword Songs’ artwork shows an eagle mid-flight clutching a sword. With this, Grand Magus have inadvertently highlighted their unapologetically cliché take on metal, and that they are happy to unashamedly wear their Viking thematics on their sleeve as they provide uncompromisingly heavy metal. They are the epitome of traditional metal brought into 2016. Fittingly, therefore, Sword Songs is an album comprising of everything that makes metal metal, from its clobbering riffs to JB Christofferson’s versatile yells. It channels the music of metal’s pioneers, and entwines it with a small dose of doom metal elements from Grand Magus’ early years.
Whilst much of doom metal focuses on a gloomy mood created through colossal but slowed riffs and deep bellows, Sword Songs speeds up these grand-scale riffs, and uses gang vocals to create larger-than-life metal anthems. Tracks like ‘Forged in Metal – Crowned in Steel’, with its monumental, rousing chorus and thumping riffs, hold a heroic sing-along worthy of Asgardian post-battle revels. The infinitely epic scope of this song sets the tone for much of Sword Songs, and Christofferson’s brawny vocals are the perfect fit as they drift in and out of doom metal bellowing and soaring cries that would make Chris Cornell proud.
Sword Songs is more than an ambitious attempt to create large-scale metal, however. Although it does this well, variation ensures that the album does not become a tedious 35-minutes of nearly-over-the-top metal. Importantly, though, this variation is restrained enough so as to not impact the cohesive nature of Sword Songs. Opener ‘Freja’s Choice’, for instance, holds a more KK Downing-viciousness in its speedy riffs, while closer ‘Every Day There’s a Battle to Fight’ goes the opposite way by slowing the tempo and allowing the track to confidently build a slow-forming momentum that culminates in the track’s killer solo.
Although it’s possible to say that Sword Songs is a stereotypical heavy metal album complete with grand-scale riffs, powerful drums and Viking-themed lyrics, it is also possible to say that it is an original album that also simultaneously stands as a testament to the longevity of metal, by reminding of the genre’s early years without relying on copying them. Their music channels the best of Sabbath, Priest and Manowar but is much more than a shameful attempt to recreate what originally made these bands great. Instead, it brings classic metal into 2016, by both celebrating it and building on its foundation.
8.5/10
