GREYHAWK
“Thunderheart”
Album Review by Iron Mathew

9.5/10

Greyhawk are a heavy metal band from the USA formed in 2016 releasing to date two E.P.’s – ‘Ride Out’ (2018) and ‘Call Of The Hawk’ (2022), and two full length albums – ‘Keepers Of The Flame’ (2020) and ‘Thunderheart’ (2024).

Emerging every two years (spooky coincidence eh), Greyhawk are back to batter listeners with another barrage of traditional “foot on the monitor” heavy metal – the American outfit hitting harder than ever to capture a forty year old sound! And although the bands sound is highly reminiscent of metals golden era (the nineteen eighties) Greyhawk are by no means a retro band – there’s plenty of modern day touches to keep ‘Thunderheart’ fresh, and in the moment…

…and right here right now in this moment, ‘Spellstone’ gets the new album underway with a blistering turn of speed! Greyhawk are on fire, dropping a gear to adopt a head bang-able friendly pace, ‘Spellstone’ quickening across the chorus break – the band delivering a tempo changing thunderstorm to whet the appetites of every single metalhead around the world! Appetites that are just gonna get wetter and wetter as ‘Thunderheart’ marches on with ‘Ombria (City Of The Night)’ and a mellow anticipation fuelled first forty seconds before the band shudder the ground with an emphatic anthemic stomp! The mid tempo striding on show here is majestic and melodic, shaking walls and vibrating floors, the opening brace a jaw dropping double to delight every listener, fan and follower. The title song ‘Thunderheart’ features the classic sound of traditional heavy metal, the band planting their feet firmly on the monitor to adopt the iconic metal pose, everyone everywhere raising clenched fists high in the air – Greyhawk began their sophomore album hard, and have remained steadfast at the harder end of the heavy metal genre.

And raising the bar higher than ever, ‘Rock & Roll City’ resonates with the sound of the legendary NWOBHM, ya know, the movement from over forty years ago that kick-started the heavy metal roller coaster – a roller coaster that’s on an unstoppable roll, Greyhawk jumping aboard to deliver an insanely catchy brand of metal. The swagger of ‘Rock & Roll City’ is immense, the band nodding its head back to the early eighties and metal’s formative years. And talking of nodding heads, yours will be, for ‘Thunderheart’ (the album) is just so damn infectious – ‘Steadfast’ clocks in at over six and half minutes in length and is by far and away the longest song on offer. And what a song – everything you could ever wish for from traditional heavy metal is on show here, from the power driven foot stomping intro to the bold anthemic march and the massive melodious intent, Greyhawk eventually stepping on the accelerator to increase the pace to send the worldwide mosh pits into overdrive! A sparkling centrepiece to the album, ‘Thunderheart’ (the album) roars on with the speedy ‘Sacrifice Of Steel’, complete with a head bang ability level that’s just shot through the fucking roof! As I said earlier, Greyhawk are on fire, delivering an album that everyone is gonna head bang to and punch the air in pure delight.

And as ‘Thunderheart’ (the album) enters its final third, the intensity remains top notch as ‘The Last Mile’ hits the hardest of any song heard so far – so hard in fact that planet Earth is in danger of being knocked off its axis! Greyhawk are at their most bombastic here, pummelling listeners with heavy metal straight from the heart of metal territory – ‘Back In The Fight’ cruising into sight featuring the iconic guitar tone synonymous with the NWOBHM evolution! And the pace too is phenomenal, perfectly in-line with anything from the early eighties when bands such as Angel Witch, Iron Maiden, Saxon and Samson re-wrote the heavy metal handbook. And it’s also incredible to think that a band over four decades and four and a half thousand miles away from where traditional heavy metal was born – in the UK – have mastered the sound of that era. Kudos Greyhawk, kudos. The album is brought to a close with the slow burning ‘The Golden Candle’, building an air of mystery and intrigue across the first couple of minutes, along with a stunning storytelling atmosphere, the band are both majestic and elegant, keeping the listener hooked every step of the way. And when ‘The Golden Candle’ finally breaks free, the hymn-like nature is emphatic and overly bold.

Overall, a barnstorming barrage of traditional heavy metal, immensely infectious and a hundred percent head bang-able.

TRACKLIST

Spellstone
Ombria (City Of The Night)
Thunderheart
Rock & Roll City
Steadfast
Sacrifice Of Steel
The Last Mile
Back In The Fight
The Golden Candle

https://greyhawkmetal.bandcamp.com/releases
https://www.facebook.com/greyhawkheavymetal/

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