(Rise Above) www.riseaboverecords.com

These days, it’s a great time to be a metalhead. Correction: These days, it’s a great time to have been a metalhead. Preferably 20 or 25 years ago. Because if that’s your frame of reference for what heavy metal means, you’ve gotta be loving the tidal wave of bands who feel exactly the same way. The “Golden Era” was that beautiful point in time when Priest and Maiden ruled above all, and upstarts like Metallica and Slayer were beginning to change the game. It was right before the hair bands sucked all the credibility out of the genre, and grunge sucked all the life out of it. Metal enjoyed legitimacy, commercial success and, most importantly, an incredibly diverse underground.

Stockholm-based Grand Magus synthesize a good number of elements from that Golden Era underground, but are unique in their unbalanced devotion to the sound of monitor-mounters like Manowar and Maiden. There’s no modular thrashiness here; Iron Will is all bruisingly heavy rock, infused with grandiosity and full-throated vocals. This shouldn’t be surprising, considering that Grand Magus is headed up by JB Christofferson (Spiritual Beggars), a man who has essentially been keeping the flame alive for the hard rock part of the NWOBHM equation for the past decade. Still, this power trio succeeds on far more than nostalgia, proving that it’s possible to evoke metal’s golden age without shamelessly aping it.

Standout Tracks: “Silver Into Steel,” “Like the Oar Strikes the Water” JASON FERGUSON