Grailknights - Return to Castle Grailskull

Yes, I know. 'Oh dear, it's another one of those lame, sad old bands that find it arousing to dress up in homoerotic superhero costumes and sing cheesy metal'. You're damn right. And they're fucking amazing.

I was slightly doubtful when I first borrowed this album off Ryan. They're a nearly unheard of German underground battle metal band which sing about glorious death on the battlefield for the sake of their holy grail. I was also kinda creeped out when I heard the strange, croaky old man shouting 'Ohh, my grandmother' in the second track. But if you look past this, you got some really catchy and technical stuff.

To start with, the guitarists are awesome. Instead of basic chord patterns they follow the styles of classic heavy metal bands, but also that of some country/folksy stuff, which sound surprisingly good, like in 'Home At Last', despite its repetitiveness. They also have two anthemic grail-related tracks which keep up the cheesy viking-type theme, 'Hail To The Grail' and 'Return To Castle Grailskull'. They released one single from this album, 'Moonlit Masquerade', and even though the video has the worst CGI in history it is a great track. The 'knights show their prowess in dual guitar riffs with Prevail and good fast paced instrumental breaks in 'Raving Storms'. I think the only slight letdown was 'Fight Until You Die', solely for the reason it isn't very long.

I give this album a 4/5 rating. It would have my 5/5 approval if ALL the songs were as epic as 'Return to Castle Grailskull' and if there just a few more songs. Nonetheless, a good buy, if you can find it, but if you do manage to people will probably call you a weirdo.