Grimlord - V-Column

In the band’s own words: “Grimlord "Cruel Ruler" is a Polish group from Wroclaw. Their music is a big dose of energy, emotional and melodies. Based on the sound of electric guitar and an excellent rhythm section and is characterised by dynamic compositions with catchy riffs and interesting lyrics in which the team usually refers to historical events. “Hell & Roll!”

This is metal played with classical over tones.  It’s heavy, melodic and yet brutal in its own way with hard edged savage fretwork and powerful drumming not to mention the very influential raucous vocal content that is not guttural as more growled out in places but not all the way, which is somewhat disappointing and not in keeping with the genres at all. However, this could be the bands intention but at this stage none too sure!

There is some beautiful acoustic guitar on Prolegomena. A Polish band that plays Spanish guitar, growls out lyrics and well the surprises are endless and it shows for sure that the band are as diverse as their language but it is very hard to know where Grimlord has taken its influences from as I really haven’t come across anything quite as random and chaotic before.

The band’s name suggests to me: Black Metal, the Spanish guitar style suggests classical, the electric guitar suggests rock, the drumming progressive metal and the vocals leaning towards death metal in places although not as guttural, it’s a real chaotic mix and maybe the band are influenced by all of the above but it is certainly not what it says on the label.

King is Dead is not one of my favourite tracks for the simple reason the vocals at the beginning sound comical and I should imagine it would be difficult to play this track at a live gig – well in the UK anyway, without the audience losing interest, however the track possesses some excellent drumming but then it trails off into oblivion.

Although it has an interesting title “Dead bodies don’t swim!” the track itself is somewhat muddled, or at least sounds it - in the fact that awful vocal starts up again but thankfully stops just as quickly as it started.

The Spanish influence is present at the start of the next track with some amazing drum beats but is again somewhat confusing as it builds to a mighty crescendo which is reminiscent of power metal to a degree.

It is very difficult to know what you are listening to here and it is like the band can’t make up their mind what they want to play so just put rock/metal on their info page on Facebook as a genre to cover everything although on their Myspace page it says the band are Progressive/Thrash/Metal and sadly I am finding it difficult to actually listen to the tracks all the way through to the end.

Widerstand 17 starts off with some beautiful acoustic strings but then turns into another jumbled and befuddled mess.

To sum up: A very perplexing listen! No doubt the guys can play their instruments but it would help immensely if they knew what genre they were playing but sadly this does not seem to be the case here. Although it is a very diverse album it is one that will not be getting repeated any time soon. Definitely not my taste in music but no doubt someone out there will love it for its diversity!

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/embed/nLko6pGBUPM[/embed]

  1. Fifth Column
  2. Mass Delusions & Hysteria
  3. Prolegomena
  4. Posthumous Coronation
  5. King Is Dead…
  6. Dead Bodies Don't Swim
  7. Faithful Avenger Till The Remainder
  8. March Again
  9. Superconscious
  10. Widerstand 17


Self released
Reviewer: Pagan Hel
Mar 3, 2013

Share this: