Holy Grail - Times Of Pride And Peril - review
Holy Grail - Times Of Pride And Peril - review
Tracklist
01. Crystal King02. Waste Them All Away
03. Sudden Death
04. Those Who Will Remain
05. Descent Into The Maelstrom
06. Apotheosis
07. Psychomachia
08. No More Heroes
09. Pro Patria Mori
10. Black Lotus
A review by
ScreamingSteelUS March 15, 2016
Holy Grail first stuck in my mind six years ago because they, like Battlecross, 3 Inches Of Blood, Huntress, Exmortus, and other bands of their ilk, skip across the borders of genres with a very modern sense of cohesion. Old school heavy metal and bombastic modern power metal meet head-on, with elements of thrash, metalcore, and heavier genres congealing around the edges. The reasons behind this are more obvious in 2016, when Holy Grail makes up half of Huntress and the former lead-neon-yellow-Teenage-Mutant-Ninja-Turtles-shirt-wearing-and-bright-ass-blue-guitar-shredding dude of Bonded By Blood finally has some strong Grail material on which to debut his skills.
All that is to say that Holy Grail brings together versatile musicians who can deafen the golden power metal halls with darkness and speed, while at the same time maintaining high standards of catchiness and karaoke-ability. Times Of Pride And Peril sees the band climbing back onto the rails and utilizing their aforesaid talents. The detour through the sour malaise of Ride The Void has changed them, and Crisis In Utopia remains far off, but the energy Holy Grail have reclaimed could power an atomic football stadium the size of Britain's Royal Navy.
"Crystal King" opens with sufficient promise, but the album begins in earnest at "Waste Them All Away" - a somber but electrifying piece that steals back from Exmortus the thunder and inspiration Holy Grail lost to them a few years ago. "Psychomachia" follows the same thread, boasting limber guitar work and a serious energy that builds nicely into the ripping, thrashy "No More Heroes." "Black Lotus" caps off the album beautifully - nine-and-a-half minutes of Holy Grail stretching out their chops and going increasingly wild. We're even treated to a (tasteful) breakdown towards the end.
I loved Holy Grail when they first stormed the fronts of the power metal scene, but I sort of fell off with them around their sophomore slump. I'm positively chuffed to see that these guys have retained the magnificent sound that made them great before. I take Times Of Pride And Peril as a sure sign that Holy Grail will be splattering molten riffs of empowered thrash across the battlefields of metal for many years to come.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 10 |
| Songwriting: | 8 |
| Originality: | 8 |
| Production: | 7 |
Written on 15.03.2016 by
Written on 15.03.2016 by
I enjoy music. Comments
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Nice review except Holy Grail have never been power metal. There were hints on Ride the Void though. Personally I think ToPaP is easily the most traditional sounding album they've ever made. The only time anything remotely modern pops up is at the end of Black Lotus.
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Hmm. This review defo sounds very hopeful! I too absolutely adore Crisis In Utopia, and also felt that Ride The Void was a real turd of a follow up to that massive debut. I was still planning to check this album out, just in case, but my expectations were quite low. Your [relatively praising] review has raised my expectations a bit, and actually lit a small fire under my butt to get to checking this album out.
---- ~Zep, Former Database and Forum Moderation~ 
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