Review by Sonny for Grand Magus - Wolf God (2019)

It's brilliant when bands push the envelope and progress their sound into new territories but it's also great when a band can consistently deliver quality sounds despite not moving too far from what gave them their appeal in the first place. Grand Magus are definitely in the latter category and are probably my favourite exponents of traditional heavy metal doing the rounds today. For anyone not familiar with them, their sound is down-tuned, and has it's roots in the stoner/doom tradition, although it is neither of those, the songs being heavy metal anthems in the old-school style. This, their ninth full-length album hasn't quite as many memorable songs as my personal favourites Hammer of the North and The Hunt, but still has plenty of high-quality tunes. Check out the Overkill-like intro to A Hall Clad in Gold to hear what I mean. The lyrics are once more about warriors, battle and glory, staples of any self-self-respecting metal gods, so, to Valhalla we ride!