Monument

The vocalist of Spiritual Beggars is back with his band, Grand Magus. After a promising and acclaimed first album, JB (lead vocals and guitars), Fox (bass and backing vocals) and Trisse (drums) deliver their second heavy doomish rocket, Monument. Pretentious ? Far from that ! This Swedish band from Stockholm (again !!!) venerates Black Sabbath. Now if you are a fan of the inventor of doom - I am speaking of Black Sabbath of course - you must buy, steal, jump on this record as soon as possible. A monument, this is what this record is all about. Straightforward as that. JB's vocals were enormous on the last Spiritual Beggars album (On Fire). Here, he incarnates alone what doom is all about. Showing their devotion and passion to the stamped 70's hard rock, Grand Magus serves a lesson of doom. Between you and me, except Sabbath and may be Krux, no band can deliver such a perfect lesson of heavy, slow, distorted and outstanding metal sound. For sure, you will have the feeling to weigh fifty pounds more after the first spin ;) Ulvalfall, the opener, starts with an atmospheric guitar intro (Pink Floyd) and sends you directly back to the age of Black Sabbath/Led Zeppelin without sounding old-fashioned, dated, nor retro. The production is enormous and hits you directly in the face (another twenty pounds for you). Of course I am thinking of Deep Purple on He Who Seeks Shall Find or on Baptised In Fire, but the colossal and underrated Swedish band "supplies" a tone of inspired and pounded guitar riffs. Honestly, inside each song, you have the feeling the band could have recorded five other albums considering the quality of each riff. For instance, the third track Brotherhood Of Sleep could be alone an eternal spring water of doom. At the frontier of the blues, the doom, the stoner, the heavy heavy-metal and classic hard rock, the Swedish power trio is as good and underrated as Rage is (in a different metal genre). Obviously, Grand Magus doesn't innovate, nor sound new ... but believe me, if the titanic Black Sabbath was about to return in studio for a new album, they would be very proud to deliver such a monumental record. Crushed ! Crushed will be your bones, crushed will be your soul, crushed will be your heart. Monument ... aaaaaaaaal. Two Thumbs Up !