Review: Grand Magus ‘Sunraven’
There is always a great sense of anticipation around the release of a new Grand Magus album as they are generally one of those bands who consistently churn out quality albums each and every time, and now the self-proclaimed ‘trio of windswept warriors’ return with nine new tracks that they describe as full of ‘heroism and valour’.
Considering this is their tenth studio album over the course of a twenty-five-year career, it’s their first release since Wolf God back in 2019, but Sunraven as stated in the press statement is an album ‘with an underlying story that adds greater depth to the Swedes’ earthy bombast’. They waste no time getting down to it as the opening track Skybound has its typical thunderous drums, pounding bass and the great storytelling voice of JB, feeding us a tale of death and going to Valhalla. It also serves as a reminder of just how bloody brilliant Grand Magus are.
As JB explained ‘the album is about Beowulf and Grendel’ with ‘some songs written about and from the perspective of Beowulf and some of the songs are written about and from the perspective of Grendel’. The album has that Olde English theme running through it and The Wheel Of Pain has a grandiose ambience to it from the start before the title track Sunraven is unleashed. It has that anthemic aura, and it’s not hard to imagine rows of metal heads lined up with jugs of mead and headbanging in unison. It’s a mighty tune of epic proportions and shows that if you don’t deviate from what you do best, then you won’t go far wrong.
It has that anthemic aura, and it’s not hard to imagine rows of metal heads lined up with jugs of mead and headbanging in unison…
Grand Magus are probably one of those bands who don’t always get the plaudits that they thoroughly deserve, and this album, as the band state, is nine tracks that ‘dive deep into heroic fantasy’ and Winter Storms has that cold essence protruding from each note but with the image of a Viking warrior walking in a blizzard holding aloft a torch of fire. This is one of those songs where you can feel the hunger coming back into their music after a long hiatus due to Covid.
The Black Lake begins with a gently strummed guitar, and soft vocal from JB, before it explodes into life, with a Sabbath-esque riff that oozes power and adds more context to, as the band like to call it, ‘their first bona fide concept album’. The opening composition of Hour Of The Wolf is sublime and had me bopping my head along immediately, and this is what Grand Magus does to me on a consistent basis. It’s a behemoth of a song from start to finish, with the bass of Fox Skinner and drumming of Ludwig Witt exceptional as always.
Grendel, one of the characters in the Anglo-Saxon poem, has the trio in full on power mode, a monstrous song about the myths and legends that JB has always been fascinated with, and by keeping the songs short, the whole album is just about thirty-five minutes long, the songs have more of an impact on the narrative. To Heorot is another chest thumping anthem, before they end with the aptly named The End Belongs To You. It’s great to have Grand Magus back as everyone needs a bit of them in their lives.
Label: Nuclear Blast Records
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Scribed by: Matthew Williams
