Griffin
Flight of the Griffin

To my God, hear me now, give me strength to be brave
Through the heat and the smoke, there's but little to save
The fires raged on throughout the night, and now through the day
Many deaths have been tolled, now the price must be paid

It is with this invocation that "Hawk the Slayer" begins, the first of nine blows of pure and uncontaminated heavy metal.

Buried under the sands of time and belonging to an era now long gone, the early eighties, Griffin is part of the studded crowd that practiced the cult of heavy metal on American soil, which proved to be fertile ground for these sounds born under the impetus of the NWOBHM. Although epic and battle-like atmospheres can be found in their songs, critics do not associate them with the epic metal groups, among which it is worth remembering the standout Cirith Ungol, Manilla Road, and also those flashy Manowar, perhaps due to the fact that they preferred faster and more direct compositions to martial and rocky rhythms, more in line with what would later become American power metal (or US power if you prefer), meaning a form of heavy metal revitalized and enriched with power, unlike what would emerge in Europe in the following decade, where among elves and unicorns perhaps the name flower metal would be more appropriate. However, the comparison with bands like Omen is decidedly spot on and Griffin has little to envy of more famous names.

To notice this, it is sufficient to listen to their debut album, "Flight of the Griffin" from 1984, a little forgotten gem of direct and sincere heavy metal, with straightforward compositions that hit the target and at the same time do not seem trivial because they are free from that pompousness for its own sake that would mortify the genre in the years to come. We therefore have true battle hymns, like "Heavy Metal Attack," that alternate with much more pathos-laden moments, above all the semi-ballad that carries the same name as the record, but always marked by that eighties flavor that feels a bit old and retro, but certainly does not spoil it. Therefore, the Griffin has shown that it can scratch deeply and that its claws leave a mark.

Unfortunately, the follow-up "Protectors of the Lair" did not fulfill the promises, perhaps also due to the departure of the guitarist Mike “Yaz” Jastremski who joined Heathen as a bassist. Is it a coincidence that in "Breaking the Silence" there are songs like "Goblin’s Blade," among the most epic that thrash remembers?