Graal – Chapter IV

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Despite having a guttural name like GRAAL, these Italian rockers are actually a relatively chilled outfit. While it’s true that they clearly draw inspiration from many of the harder bands of the 70s such as DEEP PURPLE and maybe even some OZZY OSBORNE, their apparent fondness of the keyboards mellows the harder edges of the guitars somewhat to produce a nice distilled brand of Classic Rock ‘n’ Roll.

Some tracks like ”Shadow Play” and “Revenge” in particular show evidence of old school Metal influences, with the darker intro to the former harkening back to early BLACK SABBATH. Others like “The Day” are softer and offer more of a simple Rock feel rather than Metal. This track and “Stronger” blend together to essentially become one, but the transition is so seamless that they might as well be one song to begin with. The instrumental theme of the track is nice though, and the lack of vocals helps to make it sound more timeless.

There’s no doubt that the guitars are the stars of the show here despite the great synth, as the rhythm and lead gel well together during the solos and mix with the synth to create some beautiful melodies, displayed well in the instrumental sections of “Last Hold”. “Goodbye” is one of the far softer songs of the record, especially in the guitar-free intro. However by far the most chilled and unique track is the very first of the album “Little Song”, an acoustic number which flexes all the band’s folk influences. Despite the fact that it’s so different to the rest of the album, it does the best job of showing their character since they chose to open with it, resulting in what is probably the highlight of the release.

“Chapter IV” may not receive a lot of commercial success and may not appeal to the Metal masses as much as it could, but it’d be a surprise if most people weren’t able to leave this on in the background as easy-listening just because of how frequently relaxing it is.