Album Reivew: The Grandmaster - Black Sun

I often joke that hope is a 'four-letter word', which is the cynic in me trying to protect myself from saying something too sad, but like all jokes, there is also some truth in in. When it comes to the music scene, I have learned having hope in a new band is a fairly stupid thing to do, since this is no longer a world where you can trust in any sort of continuity. As hard as it is for people to make a living as musicians these days, the constant state of flux means every album from every band can almost be treated as its own universe.

The Grandmaster was the grand return of Edguy guitarist Jens Ludwig after that band basically got put to bed, and it grew into the one of these project records from Frontiers I've become most fond of. It's a wonderful bit of melodic metal, featuring great vocals, solid hooks, and Jens' trademark soloing. I very much would have been looking forward to a follow-up, but as seems to be the case with all of these groups, things got complicated.

For whatever reason, there was a change in vocalists, and it has completely killed this group for me. Nando was a roaring voice that had grit and melody, and anchored the songs perfectly. His replacement is Peer Johansson, whose voice does absolutely nothing for me. Listening to him on the opening title track is enough to make me band my head onto my desk. His higher-pitched tone is grating, his 'grit' sounds pretty bad, but it's when he reaches for all his power that his vibrato has the effect of sounding like an out of tune warble. It is deeply unpleasant.

"Watching The End" sounds very much like Edguy's "Do Me Like A Caveman", but it doesn't have the same charisma Tobi was able to give Edguy. Look, vocalists are damn important, and whether it's fair or not, the change here is too dramatic for me to ignore. It comes down to taste, but going from one of the better metal singers in the world to someone whose voice rubs against my grain is something no amount of songwriting prowess can overcome.

That brings us to the other issue here, which is that these songs are not as consistently melodic and memorable as the debut record offered up. I don't know if that is because the writing process had more of Jens' involvement and less of Alessandro Del Vecchio's, but there's something about this record which feels like it's trying to be more metal and less melodic. That might be what they wanted, but I don't think it makes for a better product, especially as trying to sound heavier brings Peer into the more aggravating range of his voice.

I find that a shame, because there are good songs here. "Learn To Forgive" and "Something More" are able to have big choruses while being heavier than anything off the first record. If they could have maintained that level of writing, there was potential here for something really good. Or at least something really good if Peer is your kind of singer.

My main takeaway is that your opinion of this record will vary greatly from mine based on whether or not you enjoy Peer's voice and style of singing. If you do, I can hear this record being a satisfying slab of melodic metal. If you're like me, however, the whole record exists under the pall of expectations, where I can't help but think the whole way through about how much more I would like it if Nando was still the one singing.

That means I'm not sure whether to call the record itself a disappointment, or the situation surrounding it, but either way I'm left wanting something a bit more than this. The Grandmaster's return is a risky gambit, and for me it didn't pay off.