Label: Dissonance Productions
Release date: 11.10.2019
Production: Steve Grimmett
Album length: 50.45 min
Genre: Heavy Metal
Rating: 7.5 / 10
Through the eighties, Grim Reaper racked up three seriously good albums and earned themselves a highly respected, much-praised status. A reputation for excellence. First and foremost, you have to single out iconic singer Steve Grimmett, who back in those days was simply considered one of the most polished vocal aces around, thanks to his explosive, authoritative punch. In his style, Grimmett never hid his fascination with Ronnie James Dio, who had always been a huge inspiration. Those old enough will even remember that Grimmett lent his vocals to the third album by British thrash metal legends Onslaught (the label at the time pushed the band into it because it wanted to “commercialize” the band stylistically, even though it had recorded the first version of that very album with singer Syke Keeler).
Fast-forward thirty years. The years pass in silence. In the meantime Grimmett did a whole bunch of other things: in the nineties he led the band Lionsheart, and after that he was part of various projects. Although it seemed like it would never happen, in 2018 we finally got to see Grim Reaper return. Under the extended name Steve Grimmett’s Grim Reaper, they released a very solid effort, “Walking In the Shadows”. Grimmett wisely steered clear of using the original name, respectfully leaving part of the past behind him. Those energy currents, then, will never return to the lineup without Nick Bowcott. Bowcott was, after all, the driving force behind the guitar phrases throughout the band’s classic years.
The album has potential. Definitely. But there are a few key issues that cut into its value, or into its ability to make the listener raise an eyebrow while listening, because it just doesn’t leave the right amount of grab and punch. Steve Grimmett, who recently had terrible luck with a severe infection that forced doctors to amputate part of his leg, gives it his all here. He poured a hundred percent of his heart and soul into this one too. But his vocals often sound tired. Audibly! The voice “thins out” in the highest registers, especially where Steve tries to build and sustain vocal power. In those moments the vocals turn slightly nasal, and you can’t miss it. We run into this situation very early on the album, in the song Venom, and the feeling comes back several more times later. Another thing is all those numerous, if not downright damned, chorus repetitions. Precisely because of these repetitions, the element of variety gets lost, and that’s essential for an album to grab the listener and hold on. The album doesn’t build real dynamics in shifting between moods. That so-called “third” chorus, which in the template of this kind of songwriting is always planted right before the exit, goes on and on and drags as if it’ll never end, and when you listen to the album a few times, you just can’t get a satisfying level of variety from one song to the next. The album must have been created and written very quickly, no doubt about it. This is a crew of experienced writers who, at this creative speed, clearly haven’t managed to fully “alienate” themselves from the “naivety” of the years gone by.
The real magnet, besides Grimmett’s still very good singing, is the excellent guitar solos, which deliver a heap of pleasure while listening to the album, especially in the parts where a song shifts into a mid-eight passage. The production is very good too: well balanced, warm, and organic enough, and there’s certainly no shortage of moments that tug at the heartstrings of retro-nostalgics. It’s clear this is an old-school album. Yes, and that’s not hard to pick out. Friends of Judas Priest and Saxon will feel right at home in the load of fresh guitar phrases that the album “At the Gates” delivers. There’s no shortage of gloom, occult vibes, doom, and basically that whole dose of “blackness” a proper heavy metal album needs, either. There’s more than enough drama on it.
Maybe Grimmett should ease off the gas pedal a bit and, going forward, free up more room for his instrumentalists. Simply put, he’s too present everywhere with his vocals, even on the transitions where space opens up for various guitar tricks or fun rhythmic switch-ups, he fills that space with vocal bits.
All in all. A nice album from a legendary musician. Worth a spin. But all three cult classics of the eighties remain untouchable.
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Tracklist:
1. At the Gates
2. Venom
3. What Lies Beneath
4. The Hand That Rocks the Cradle
5. Knock At the Door
6. Rush
7. Only When I Sleep
8. Line Them Up
9. Break Neck Speed
10. Under the Hammer
11. Shadow in the Dark
Lineup:
Steve Grimmett – vocals
Ian Nash – guitar
Julian Hill – bass
Mark Pullin – drums
