Holy Grail
Crisis in Utopia
Prosthetic Records

Much of the attention leading up to Holy Grail’s debut release, Crisis in Utopia, has been less about their raised-horn, power metal throwback and more about their feud (if you want to call it that) with same-veined retro hair rockers, White Wizzard, whose bass player — and sole original member — Jon Leon has found fault with ex-WW members now in Holy Grail, claiming they’re using their brief time in WW to garner publicity for their new band. I’m just gonna go ahead and check that one off in the who-gives-a-fuck column and rock out with my cock out, because when it comes to militant riffing, bullet belt scaling, and vocal sorcery, Holy Grail are piloting a whole fleet of kamikaze TIE Kai fighters straight into the black and leathery heart of their Creator Kreator with gauntlets held high. Yeah, okay, metal wordplay aside, there’s a whole rash of recycled thrash to sort through nowadays, and sometimes you’re best served to just throw on some Angel Witch and go about your day, but Holy Grail do manage to elevate their slay n’ play at times by incorporating fistfuls of sleazy, shout-along devilry (“Call of Valhalla”) and folksy, Blind Guardian-inspired mysticism (“Nocturne in D Minor” and “Hollow Ground”) into their familiar-sounding arsenal. I really think we should start calling this stuff the NWONWOBHM.

Listen to “Call of Valhalla” from Crisis in Utopia!

Black Sleep of Kali
Our Slow Decay
Small Stone

Debut album from Denver’s Black Sleep of Kali, which, despite its name, is a furious force of sludge metal devilry that’s more whack-a-mole doom than it is a slumbering death crawl. And it’s no easy feat keeping up that kind of  eternal energy with an average run time of six minutes for the eight songs laid down here, but I suppose anything is possible when you’re drawing your annihilation inspiration from a dark and violent goddess. Right, so it all rolls heavily along like an avalanche of Baroness worship, but the sonic assault of Our Slow decay isn’t without its groovy riffs, hardcore fluctuations, and punk metal aesthetics either, which makes for a fairly dynamic, anarchic listen that will not only knock your walls down but will piss on your rug, too. Definitely a big-balled gut bucket of bubbling black action, this one.

Listen to “The Crow and The Snake” from Our Slow Decay!

Buy Black Sleep of Kali’s Our Slow Decay from Small Stone!