Grand Magus
Iron Will

After all, it's normal to feel nostalgia for the past, for what can't be the same as the present due to the passage of time. It's like this in all fields: nostalgia for soccer as a noble sport that's now gone, nostalgia for lost times when there was work and political dignity, but also nostalgia for the music of the past, which, compared to today's, seems more "real" and genuine.

Sometimes I need to feel nostalgic: I go back to the rock and metal of the '70s and '80s, reliving those sounds and that musical "sweat" that now seems increasingly rare. Yet this time I decided to avoid the usual Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Deep Purple, and Led Zeppelin. I was looking for something heavier but that sounded just like the previously mentioned bands. The choice fell on one of the most interesting musical entities in Sweden of the last 10 years. A name like Grand Magus might scare many: I too expected a "rain" orchestra in Rhapsody style and had hesitations about the drum kit (with related blades) like Helloween and Gamma Ray. Fortunately, there's none of that in Iron Will.

The band consists of three members: the voice belongs to "JB," already a singer of Spiritual Beggars, also handling the guitar here. Bass and drums are entrusted to "Fox" and "Seb." The name chosen for the band, as well as the cover, gives us a direction towards the music the three musicians propose: a rocky heavy metal devoid of frills, with a few glimpses of the epic doom of fellow countrymen Candlemass.

This way, we return to breathe the air of the past with the brief acoustic opening of "Like the oar strikes the water", before a landslide of riffs hits in full eighties style, heavy and inevitable. Nothing better for giving birth to heavy metal in its purest form. "Fear is the key" is the second example from the CD: note the powerful throat perfectly suited to the genre of JB (Janne Christoffersson). There’s no more room for the stone rock that made an appearance in their early works: with "Iron Will," Grand Magus establishes their "new course," embracing a musical line more inclined to the heavy. The title track is the absolute manifesto of this new "philosophy": a rhythm and riffs coming directly from the dawn of the genre, all seasoned with a power and general atmosphere that harkens back to the great myths of Scandinavia, almost as if to summon a personal and unusual viking metal to the altar. Similarly to the previous, "Silver into Steel" confirms this ancient scent of Grand Magus' branded music: this is also made possible thanks to a wisely balanced production between the cleanliness of the sounds and at the same time a raw touch that enhances the chiseling.

Not without its flaws (particularly a scarcity in longevity), the fourth album by Grand Magus, released in 2008 by Rise Above, only confirms the quality of a proposal that borrows heavily from the simplicity of the past. The band does not match the splendors of the self-titled debut that launched them in 2001, but with "Iron Will," they once again underline their presence on the altar of European heavy metal.

A great surprise.

1. "Like The Oar Strikes The Water" (3:13)
2. "Fear Is The Key" (3:31)
3. "Hovding" (0:39)
4. "Iron Will" (5:01)
5. "Silver Into Steel" (4:15)
6. "The Shadow Knows" (5:35)
7. "Self Deceiver" (4:49)
8. "Beyond Good And Evil" (5:14)
9. "I Am The North" (9:01)