HAVE I MENTIONED HOW MUCH THE NEW HOLY GRAIL ALBUM RIPS???

‘Cause if I have, I haven’t done so enough and it bears repeating. The new Holy Grail album fucking rips. The new Holy Grail album fucking rips. The new Holy Grail album fucking rips. Seriously folks… this album takes all assholes and leaves them gaping wide open.

The White Wizzard comparison is definitely apt because as most of you know by now Holy Grail was formed by three ex-members of that band, but Holy Grail is definitely not White Wizzard. For one, they’re instantly way more guitar-driven; killer riffs ooze out of every orifice and scorching solos — sometimes multiple ones per song — are the norm. But the riffs and solos don’t come at the expense of good songs, and this album’s got more than a handful that’ll get stuck in your head for days on end. Dare I say Holy Grail sound a bit more modern than WW? Not that sounding more modern is necessarily a good thing, but Holy Grail seem to have incorporated certain elements of modern metal (i.e. fast-paced double bass drumming) into their unmistakably old school sound whereas their ex bandmates haven’t done that as much. And screacher James Paul Luna’s high-reaching voice is easily as good as any of the 6,781 ex-vocalists of White Wizzard.

So. We’ve got album-opener “My Last Attack” streaming here and Brave Words has one of my personal favorites, “Immortal Man,” streaming here (right now it’s the 3rd track but I imagine that will change). Crisis in Utopia drops on October 26th via Prosthetic; I can’t recommend it enough! Pre-order it here for only 10 smackers (or 20 with a nifty shirt), and catch HG on tour with Blind Guardian starting in November (dates here).

-VN