GREYHAWK – Warriors of Greyhawk

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7.0

• Bands:
  GREYHAWK
• Duration: 00:49:37
• Available from: 02/13/2026
• Label:

• Cruz Del Sur Music

Streaming not yet available

Greyhawk cross the finish line of their third album with Cruz Del Sur, one of the points of reference for some time for lovers of more traditional heavy metal. The first work, “Keepers Of The Flame” from 2020, recalled right from the artwork the aesthetics of bands that, between the Seventies and Eighties, played primordial, epic and combative heavy metal (Heavy Load above all). The title track, placed at the end of the debut, was a little gem that made all lovers of the most epic and glorious underground metal focus on the Seattle band, thanks to their tendency to alternate more typically epic metal moments with others closer to the American hard rock of the Eighties. The guitar work, which recalled Racer With the second album “Thunderheart”, however, the artistic direction had not yet appeared completely defined, even though it was an overall valid work with significantly improved production and a Rev Taylor with a much more focused baritone singing. Taylor who was recently replaced, for the recordings of this “Warriors of Greyhawk”, by Anthony Corso. The new frontman, more technical and with a greater vocal range, here guarantees a more professional performance in line with the canons of European power metal, but at the same time decidedly more standardized, helping to further smooth out those distinctive elements that in the past made Greyhawk more interesting than average.

The opener “Land Of Ashes” immediately characterizes the direction of the album: a European-style power metal, supported by high-pitched and acrobatic voices. Corso's vocal range, especially in the lower tones, manages to give the music, it must be said, a warmth that is often lacking in productions of this type, as happens in “Take A Stand”, embellished with warlike choirs that form the backdrop to lilting guitars and high-class solos, capable of combining speed, taste and executive cleanliness. “Hyperspace” highlights all the confidence of the new vocalist, who manages to carve out his own space at the helm of a now well-established band, sometimes with vocal lines that are not limited to chasing tight rhythms in full power style, but also incorporate some classic heavy metal influences à la Ronnie James Dio.

The guitar solos represent one of the strong points of the entire album: the couple formed by Jesse Berlin and Rob Steinway appear close-knit and well-established, with solo interventions that enhance both the more melodic and the more aggressive parts. In particular, the interventions à la Racer Instead, “Rise Above” reminds us of what Greyhawk had stood out for since the first demo, a song constructed and performed in an exemplary manner, with guitars full of chorus in full mid-eighties Def Leppard style, with solos and textbook singing.

It must be said that “Warriors of Greyhawk” is probably Greyhawk's most homogeneous album to date, with artwork that reflects their passion for Dungeons & Dragons – Greyhawk is one of the best-known settings of the game – and also the best played and sung chapter of their career. However, this greater compactness ends up being to the detriment of personality, flattening the proposal onto already widely used coordinates. In fact, we would have expected the consolidation of a more defined identity, capable of uniting in a truly convincing way the many souls of the band – the epic metal one, the tight rhythms and the hard rock openings – but the new album only partially succeeds in this aim.

Without prejudice to the high instrumental quality, the feeling remains of being in front of a band that has not yet taken a truly definitive direction. “Warriors Of Greyhawk” shows greater homogeneity than in the past, but this compactness does not yet translate into a strong and recognizable vision, leaving unresolved the knot of an identity which, although potentially solid, struggles to emerge decisively, despite a well-made album qualitatively in line with the previous two.