Imagine a wall of intense, crushing sound of epic proportions, with soaring vocals… Ladies and gents, I give you Holy Grail. There is definitely nothing mediocre about this 11-track album, from start to finish. The members of this band give it their all on each and every song, featured on Crisis in Utopia. So I could go on about how much of this band is a staple of “amazingly, mind-blowing crazy-awesome” but I’d rather briefly explain how much this album rocks my socks with each track. 

1. My Last Attack

Here we have the introductory of their greatness – the song starts off with a catchy, but shredderific riff, just alone and as is… until your ears are filled with a rush of the rest of the band kicking right in. This song is a perfect example of what Holy Grail is like. A perfect blend of all aspects: catchy, technical, energetic, powerful and ardent.

2. Fight to Kill 

This is a fun little tune that isn’t afraid to show it’s technicality as well. With the impressive and dynamic vocals of James-Paul Luna, he shows his screeching screams and melodic vocal melodies. You know how catchy those “Woaahh-ooohh-wooahh’s” are when Bruce Dickinson does it? Yeah, you’ll want to sing along to it in this song. 

3. Call of Valhalla 

Catchy choruses galore! It’s even got a neat little gang-vocal of a crowd-interaction at the ending chorus – it takes you into what they are like in concert. The guitarwork is very groovy, extremely head-bob worthy. 

4. Crisis in Utopia

And as we reach to the title track – you can only wonder if this album has a skipper? To be completely honest, if there was a song to skip, it would be the title track. Which is surprising, but if music appreciation is your thing, fellow musicians – then by all means do not skip it. This song also features some harsh vocals done by Eli Santana, one of their two guitarists. This is definitely not a bad song, but I feel as though it was dragged out too long at the end. Other than that, this track is amazing just as the others, though I personally don’t hype about it as much as the others. 

5. Immortal Man 

And if you thought that this album was gonna go downhill from here… You’d be wrong. This song almost brings you back into that powerful feeling… of being IMMORTAL! I like the useage of thrash in this song as well that goes behind the solo near the ending of the song. I especially like the rhythm in the chorus where you hear a little fill-in. 

6. Nocturne in D Minor 

The oddball, the black-sheep… whatever you wish to call it. It’s beautifully composed. It opens with bagpipes and a chorus of wind instruments as it goes into a very solemn instrumental of acoustic guitars and violins. If you have any love for symphonies in your heart… You will love this. It’s a brilliant transition that goes right into the next song. 

7. The Blackest Night

This song shows the true talent of the band when it comes to song-writing. Most cannot follow-through and make spontaneous work… But in this case, the dudes of Holy Grail have come to triumph and conquer. Mr. Luna’s aggressive and raspy screams come to play again and compliment perfectly with the powerful punch that the guitars throw at you. I have no idea how this fun and happy-sounding band came up with this song, but it definitely shows some good powerful emotion.

8. Chasing the Wind 

The verses where Luna is singing after another fantastic intro, reminds me of Donkey Kong. Don’t ask. It just does. Not that it’s bad, but the melody is catchy and reminds me of it. Anyway - this song is yet another success at showing their original brand of metal music. I especially like the chorus and its lyrics, it’s catchy, emotional and clean sounding, and nevertheless impressive in all aspects, both song-writing and catchiness. 

9. Hollow Ground

If you want the epitome of epic – this is it, my friends. The chorus has something of a soaring, epic and melodic sound that will get stuck in your head, and if it doesn’t…. You’re not human. Seriously, if you look in the dictionary for the word “epic”, you’ll find a picture of Holy Grail and the example will say something along the lines of: “Refer to ‘Hollow Ground’ by Holy Grail.” And I think I have only heard about 3 vocalists who have achieved this high of a note before the last bridge and chorus of the song, and Mr. Luna is definitely one of those 3 vocalists. This is definitely my favorite off the album. 

10. Requiem 

This is a nice little catchy song with a very doom-influenced intro and outro, which I think compliments the songs lyrics as well, since they are also very doomy. I also like to point out the tremolo guitars to accentuate the doom-like chords at the end of the song. 

11. Cherish Disdain 

This is probably starred as my second favorite track of the album. This is a fantastic song to show listeners all qualities of what this band can produce. The spontaneity flows so well together to make up for such a unique sounding composition, showing that this song isn’t just a good tune to sing along to, but appreciate from all musicians. It contains a good portion of heavy guitars and melodic guitars with overtones of beautifully written vocal melodies to compliment the overall theme. It still preserves it’s catchiness that they have been delivering throughout the album, with little neat surprises of almost guttural vocals, shredderiffic licks, tribal drumming and harmonizing with clean vocals and harsh vocals. And how can anyone not get into the song when Mr. Luna sings: “Forever’s now past tense, truces are bent, and you can’t repent. Failure eternal sequence, your futile advent; you’re not even there yet.” Powerful lyrics, with powerful music to back it up with – and just when you think it was all over… The lyrics are followed by a complimentary short of a piano/symphonic composition, with some nice humming choir to overlap it and end this successful album with a trailing piano.