Steve Grimmett: the man we love to love when it comes to hard rockin' Metal music made in the UK. The astonishing voice of Steve has haunted lots of GRIM REAPER, ONSLAUGHT and LIONSHEART fans all these years while NWOBHM followers can surely recall his early works with CHATEAUX and MEDUSA. While lately touring under the STEVE GRIMMETT BAND moniker - had the chance to watch the band onstage the past year - here comes the first album from the singer's 2008 project called GRIMMSTINE.
Grimmet's 2007 solo release, Personal Crisis, featured a very good set of melodic yet powerful Hard Rock cuts and - to be honest - I was expecting something similar in this new CD. Even if the cover artwork would not suggest much in that direction, truth is no one can guarantee Grimmstine points at one direction. To be more precise: the 'trademark' songwriting Steve has developed from his LIONSHEART years and beyond is still present, with the WHITESNAKE-ish guitar melodies and the British Hard Rock/Metal pounding formulas in the rhythm section. An added fact, though, comes with the reinforcement of enough US/British modern Rock/Metal elements in the traditional spine of enough of the songs.
All these, resulting in a mixture quite often witnessed in new works by established musicians, surely has its risk. History has shown some artists can end up making fool of themselves while in other cases the excitement and the artistic stamp engraved leaves little bad to comment upon. In the Grimmstine album, though, it can be quite a pain in the ass to come up with such a proper and convincing verdict. You have to listen to the album plenty of times in order to shape some draft opinion. From one side comes the majestic voice of Steve - a real pride for Britain, I think - who has the charisma of upgrading the significance of even the most mediocre tune with his unique throat. Without exaggerating in his vocals range in this album, Steve proceeds to some notable vocal lines dressing up the songs with his unique identity; I don't think you can't escape his magic...for once more.
Thus, trying to focus to the music itself there's an instant non-Grimmett-depended disability omitting form the CD's power. With fifteen songs and something less than 72 minutes of running time, Grimmstine reasonably enough does not avoid having more than a couple of somehow weak tracks, plus the total duration may raise some wow, I'm tired remarks. Good thing is that the majority of the songs show an adequate level of making, with a variety in tempos and some really astonishing guitar work made by co-partner axeman Steve Stine. Thunderous riffs, tons of lead themes and a certain tendency to flirt with both the past and present of Hard/Heavy paths. Mild moments include the prosperous Supernatural and the blooming Prisoner, mid-pace familiar themes are exposed in the rock-steady You'll Never Know and the consorting 911 while American aggressive flashes are out in cuts like Memory and To Catch A Killer.
If I had enough money in my pocket I wouldn't quiet down without Grimmstine in my hands. Else, having in mind the album surely has quality and variety within, you can probably check out samples in the band's MySpace page and decide for yourselves.