Band: Holy Grail
Release: Ride The Void (Album)
Release Date: Out Now
This January, Californian Heavy Metal outfit Holy Grail return with their second full length album, ‘Ride The Void‘. Metal has changed quite a lot over the decades and various styles have come and gone like the seasons. But now, Holy Grail have tried to piece together a little bit of everything — from Thrash to Metalcore — and end up with an unfocused final product. ‘Ride The Void‘ gets completely lost in where it’s trying to go, which results in a boring, rather than unique, effort.
‘Bestial Triumphans‘ starts off sounding very Megadeth as it kicks in. However, some unrequired screaming vocals are thrown into the mix mid-way, and the song then returns to its original direction. It’s all in the nature of composition to try something new if it brings something to the song, but it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what a small amount of screaming and open-chugging would do here. If it was worthwhile, surely Dave Mustane would have done it years ago?
The same applies to ‘Bleeding Stone‘ as Holy Grail sample a slice of Lamb Of God, but without the Randy Blythe-esque vocals this time. Some screaming might have actually worked on this track as the riffs are complex, fast and eminent of early millennium Metal, yet James Paul Luna’s vocals remain unrepresentative and stuck in the past.
The album’s length doesn’t help matters either. It consists of 13 tracks (14 on the bonus edition) and each are 5-7 minute long, meaning the album lasts an eternity. A record with a clear purpose and a distinctive direction can last 14 songs with ease, but when it’s a jumble – like ‘Ride The Void‘ – it only emphasises the problem. Less would certainly have been more for this album.
One of the few tracks of real quality is ‘Dark Passenger‘, simply because the band draw purposefully on their Thrash Metal influences, select one idea and follow it through. Their musicianship could never be questioned at any point, and it just goes to show that this album could have been very good had they taken this approach throughout.
Holy Grail have tried to overcomplicate ‘Ride The Void‘, and it hasn’t really worked. There are moments and sections in individual songs that cause the head to bang, but that’s not enough when the majority leaves the same head confused. Stripping it back to basics and following through what they’re really good at would have been more successful approach to this record.
5/10
Reviewer: Matt Borucki
