By: Anders

Posted: Oct 5, 2005

The closest thing Norway comes to the epic sides of Judas Priest, Griffin is now ready with their 4th album. And after a bit of turmoil with who should handle the vocals, after Pete Beck got a heart attack, and then quitted the band, and following came back, the band now seem stable and on the right path again, with Mr. Beck behind the microphone.

Though Pete Beck is both a force and the Achilles' tendon of Griffin. His vocals are hard to get into, that has earlier been a problem for me regarding their music. But if one have the patience and gives it time, the vocals will grow and in time seem like a part of the overall sound picture, that can't be missed. And on a side note his vocal performance seem a bit more "under control" on this release, compared to the band's last album "No Holds Barred". He has a lot of power, the voice is raw and has a great range, and he is starting to handle the melodious parts really good.

The music is heavy metal with quite some balls at times, at other times the music gets rather epic and emotional, almost with a melancholic feel. I like the more straight ahead heavy metal parts the best to be honest, and there are a good amount of enjoyable moments on this album. The guitar work is good and ripping, there are some good main riffs, even better melodies and nice harmonies. The solos on the album are killer as well, Marcus Silver and Kai Nergaard are a couple of very good guitarists, and the duels are cream for the ears, I wouldn't have minded some more of that. The bass is good as well, always present, showing its raw tones right under the guitar tracks, some very good bass lines indeed. The drumming is approved as well, hard hitting and straight forward, with some nice technical details.

This is for sure the best Griffin album I have heard, and it seems much more mature of what I can remember of their earlier material. The compositions are well-made and the weight of the straight forward parts, the more calm ones, the technical parts and the wanking are very balanced, and makes it all reach a higher wholesome. It is a nice deal of melodic and hard hitting heavy metal, with some nice epic moments and good sing a long choruses and killer work from all the strings. Check out my faves from the album the straight ahead 'Preminition' with a killer chorus and the dark and mysterious 'Dungeon', though 'Recipe For Rage' draws as well due to all the killer guitar solos on it. It has taken a while, but it finally seems like Griffin has matured and are ready to conquer!

Rating: 8/10

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