(Melodic Death/Folk/Power) Grailknights - Alliance - 2008, APE (image+.cue), lossless

‘Alliance’. A better title for this album couldn’t have been chosen. The most obvious reason for this title is given in the song ‘Alliance’. Grailknights hails the bond between the band and their fans, the Battlechoir. But there is another alliance on this album. The alliance between the styles used on the album: I heard melodic death metal, power metal and even a hint of folk metal thrown altogether. The genre of the band is described as melodic death metal on the Archives, but power/death metal would be a better description. Here are some songs that definitely need to be pointed as examples for the variety that Grailknights offers.
The opener, ‘Nameless Graves’, would make a perfect power metal song, if without vocals. The chorus in its whole IS power metal. But: the vocals elsewhere are the grunts of death metal.
The next song, ‘Alliance’, consists nearly entirely of death metal. The guitars and drums go wild in a true death metal fashion, Mac Death and Sir Optimus Prime succeed each other in doing the deep throat vocals. Sometimes the power metal comes looking around the corner albeit with minor influences.
The folk influence is heard on "The White Raven", an accordion and acoustic guitar are used at several points to create the atmosphere of a port full of pirates.
‘Tranquillity’s Embrace’ sounds like an intruder on this album. It is a ballad. An acoustic ballad from a band that makes something death metallish and that dresses like Superman. A total surprise, as you can imagine. But after a few listening sessions it becomes more and more interesting to listen to, since it has a certain power in it and the lyrics are quite inspiring.
The last song to point out is ‘Der Kцnig von Thule’ (The King of Thule). It was written by Johan Wolfgang von Goethe. The good man died in 1832, so the song could be called ‘classic’. Grailknights gave it a special treatment, and it made of it a song with powerful riffs and acoustic intermezzo’s. They prove with this song that classical music doesn’t have to be boring.
Grailknights is a very creative band, as they proved with this album. They never repeat their selves, which is important for me on an album of this length. Some elements they successfully reuse in different songs, e.g. the parts where the band just shouts ‘Oooooo ooo oooooo ooo...’. These parts are great during live gigs to get the audience yelling. Which is exactly what I’ll do when I see these knights performing live.
To conclude: people looking for something different in power metal, pay attention to this album. It will kick your ass. My personal favourites: ‘Nameless Grave’, ‘Alliance’, ‘Grailquest Gladiators’.