Grand Magus
Sunraven
Grand Magus almost seemed a little cooked there for a second. The rust that’s ever so familiar for trad-metal and any older-skewing act appeared to be creeping up, onto what was already a band deep in ‘for fans only’ territory. It’s not like Grand Magus to leave five years between albums, and a dull outing on 2019’s Wolf God would only sour the note left on further. Of course, these bands never really go away; maybe into dormancy, but even that seems rather rare. More often than not, it ends up as the briefest of sojourns to regroup and find their bearings again, before it’s right back to the business a cult fanbase will expect from them. Something like Sunraven, then, is a bit of an outlier, all at the same time addressing prior issues, justifying an extended period of time in the oven, and restoring a bit of hope that its creators aren’t simply spinning their wheels ad infinitum.
As far as that last notion goes, it does need to be stressed that this is no radical shift for Grand Magus. It might even be the furthest thing from it. Trad-metal is still the name of the game, from the sword-swinging feel, to the weather-bitten production, to the fact that the central concept is about Beowulf and Grendel. Even just look at the artwork and try to imagine a more perfect, succinct distillation of this corner of metal’s fundamentals—you can’t. So of course Sunraven sounds the way it does, as predictable as it is. The main difference, though, is how Grand Magus aren’t slogging their way through it, ten albums deep, out of necessity. Wolf God was closer to that; Sunraven, with its writhing basslines and Janne Christoffersson’s forward vocals letting him go full leather-lunged soulman, is a clear rejuvenation.
The benefit of Grand Magus staying in their lane isn’t lost, nor is the irony that their best is such a clear result of being as safe and reliable as possible. They’ll try and shake things up in spots of Hour Of The Wolf with a clearer gallop, but that doesn’t feel quite as good as brawnier, muscular metal (which is presumably why they’re so quick to switch back to that, even within the same track). No, it’s the deliberate pacing and grooves that are the best pocket for Grand Magus to reside in. It’s where an opener as dynamically throwing its fist in the air as Skybound comes from, or opportunities for some bassy vocal leads on Winter Storms and The Black Lake. It’s not a very long album, either, and while the constructive threads are wound a little looser on the last couple of songs, they’re still not bad by any means. Again, this is Grand Magus’ tenth album, and the degree to which they’ve not phoned this in is legitimately impressive, all things considered.
To that end, the mostly you’ll likely see come from Sunraven is Grand Magus reclaiming some footing where they would’ve always had it. There’s no illusion that, even on as watertight a product as this, there’ll be some influx of admirers beyond the already-faithful. And that’s fine; it’s hard to imagine these bands would think otherwise, anyway. Either way, it’s resulted in Grand Magus’ best album in a little while, and an example of how trad-metal doesn’t need to feel as old as the cues its aping actually are. You can still do a whole lot with very, very little, even insulated to a fault in your comfort zone.
For fans of: Cirith Ungol, Visigoth, Blues Pills
‘Sunraven’ by Grand Magus is released on 18th October on Nuclear Blast Records.
Crucifiction
Will To Power
Rather than something brand new, Crucifiction serve as a continuation of Bloodbather, a pretty sick band that could be a bit one-note, but never released anything long enough to dwell on it. Plus, that one note was rusty-cleaver metalcore à la Code Orange or prime Cane Hill, with its violence and insidiousness fittingly boosted. Crucifiction, meanwhile, are angled deeper into deathcore, though that’s the only significant change (if could can call it even that). This is also a full-length album, meaning that there is now time to dwell on their one-notedness, but as ‘continuation’ would imply, Crucifiction remain good enough to where that’s barely an issue.
Honestly, anything that could be deemed a significant ‘problem’ can easily find ways to cancel itself out. It’s not a bounty of ideas that Crucifiction have—nor has it been vastly increased, if at all, from their previous incarnation—but they don’t stretch themselves thin either. To wit, if monstrously heavy deathcore can become tiresome over a full-length album, at least Will To Power refuses to withhold. It’s actually rather impressive how relentless this can feel, as barely a moment is taken to gather breath among the nu viciousness and Salem Vex’s necro-shrieks. When a motif like this is this consistent in the punishment it doles out, the core audience isn’t going to be clamouring for ‘variety’.
Sure, that might be the cop-out explanation to hand-wave away the lack of movement outside this exact lane, but if it works, it works. You’re not going to find Crucifiction running the risk of diluting what’s brutally effective for them, in the most literal way possible. Like, the album is about systematic revenge relayed through gory torture-porn—does any of that scream “needs more ideas” at all? Even when some outside hands are brought along in Spite’s Darius Tehrani and Melancholia’s Alex Hill, they’re for a different flavour of the same mauling, predominantly. It’s all indicative of the kind of shortcuts open to deathcore, of which Crucifiction are more than happy to partake with blistering efficiency.
So, yeah, complain and call it samey and ‘nothing new’ if you want, but to do so is utterly missing the point. The argument falls flat immediately when Crucifiction are already springboarding off a previous band, knowingly and openly, as a means of moving forward that doesn’t require massive reinvention. To have Will To Power to leverage that benefit only seals it further, an album that’s such a thorough culmination of genre cues past and present. Though, even on its face, it’s just a remarkably solid deathcore album that’s hard to deny, should you be in the market for one. If that’s the case, Crucifiction’s familiarity with wither away post-haste.
For fans of: Bloodbather, Chelsea Grin, Slaughter To Prevail
‘Will To Power’ by Crucifiction is released on 11th October on Rise Records.
Veiled
SE/CT
Nowadays, to be in a deathcore band, you have to look the part. Not necessarily from a physical aspect—though the age of ‘five heavily-tatted dudes in black t-shirts, arms folded in a dark room’ has long since passed—but in how your work gets perceived. No longer is deathcore the natty runoff of ‘real’ metal that no one wants; people take it seriously now, so the bands have to, too. So here’s Veiled, strapping together the grandeur of Lorna Shore, the refinement of the rest of the modern wave, and the unending pummelling of the entire Unique Leader roster. Sounds like a good genre release on a debut album, right? Well, it is…if a little stretched beyond its means.
SE/CT is the sound of a band throwing themselves in at the deep end, with seemingly no safety precautions taken. There’s a lot thrown in across 14 tracks, adorning some common deathcore fatigue with cleaner singing, cavernous production and added asides to blow it up that much further. It’s a lot to take in, especially for a band who’ve taken next to no run-up to get here. As a result, you might find yourself lost when trying to find who Veiled are in particular, submerged inside the Katamari of deathcore ‘stuff’ they’ve picked up on formation. SE/CT does drag because of that, sometimes to an extensive degree. Respite is almost impossible to come by, isolated to brief samples of crime reports that, even then, find Veiled’s malevolent world bleed over into them. For deathcore of this stripe in particular, it’s a little much to take in without feeling your mind wander and desensitise.
The sense you get from it all is that Veiled know what they’re doing and want to really drive that home. There’s not a speck of newbie uncertainty or apprehension to be found; it’s all as grand and full-force as it was designed to be. That’s definitely the biggest advantage that Veiled have at this stage. Especially on a song like Reverie as the calamitous closing salvo, the integration of orchestral, choral and music box touches suitably conveys how grandiose a vision they have. Similarly, screams and growls across the board have the exact bloody-mindedness that you’d want. Heaviness is the furthest thing from an issue on SE/CT, building to the monolith of opulent design that’s such an easy fix for deathcore to grow by. In terms of the theory, Veiled are knocking it out of the park.
Put to practice, though, there’s still some work they’d benefit from. This is far from a prime cut, and even when some of the excess flab is trimmed away, you’re still left with a band yet to come into their own creatively. It’s a great start to be ingratiated into deathcore’s big, important top table, but should Veiled find their way there now, they’d likely be subject to a lot of side-eyes from the bands they’re liberally pulling from. Still, deathcore as a whole is hardly lousy with innovation, and Veiled are indeed getting there from most angles. As far as diamond-in-the-rough debuts go, this is certainly one of them.
For fans of: Lorna Shore, Distant, To The Grave
‘SE/CT’ by Veiled is released on 18th October on Seek & Strike.
Words by Luke Nuttall
