Holy Grail-Seasons Bleedings

Prosthetic
2011

LA's Holy Grail have toured for much of the last two years. When they got some down time they decided to record two covers for this 7". This marks the first time that new guitarist Alex Lee (ex-Bonded By Blood), who joined HOLY GRAIL in the spring, has recorded with the group. First up they take on "Kill the king" and I am quickly reminded of why there are not a huge amount of covers of Dio-era Rainbow. It's because they were very, very good and it's hard to pull off a cover because of that. Holy Grail try to add their own sound in, but overall they fall short. It's not bad, but sounds more like a band trying to cover their favorite song live in some little bar. It may have been fine for that, but if you lay it down to vinyl then you need to be on and this version isn't quite there. The second track is King Diamond's "No presents for Christmas". Again Holy Grail make it difficult for themselves with this choice. Musically they hang on at times, but are off on other parts. However as far as the singing goes James Paul Luna just sounds rather average trying to handle King Diamond's soaring vocal lines. It's a better cover than the first one, but still just fair. While I normally like this band I just got the impression that they were in over their heads with these two songs. I admire them for picking something challenging, but the results are just alright at best. This holiday album isn't much of a gift.