Blog Post
Girish And The Chronicles – 'Hail to the Heroes' Released : 11 February, 2022 Frontiers Music
Martin Goulden • Feb 15, 2022
Album Review
Like most fans and would be connoisseurs of fine Rock Art, a great deal of bands are stumbled upon by chance, usually by the magic and grace of the Interweb, be it a social media pop up, a streaming service link, a you tube video etc. This was the case with Girish And The Chronicles (GATC) during a 2021 'Search and find' of what was happening across certain European festivals, I fell upon the line up for the UR ROCK Festival in Switzerland and with that my first discovery of the band, though seems I'm fairly late to the 'Chronicles' party as the guys were formed back in 2009 and have had 2 albums released, with a third well on the way to completion at the time of said discovery.
From the state of Sikkim, in north-east India, certainly not a country that one automatically looks at in respect of Rock and Metal music, however further digging around has found that Rock and Metal is very much alive and kicking with a huge following of all things Loud, Hard n' Heavy being blasted out, along with an abundance of bands plying their trade on stages and studios across the country.
So onto the aforementioned GATC third album and alas, the monster has now been unleashed in 'Hail to the Heroes', 12 tracks of Killer, Hard Rock Satisfaction laid bare onto the listening apertures, this release certainly presents and offers a diverse feel and sound across the album, we have the hard hitting openers in 'Primeval Desire', 'Children of The Night' and 'I'm not the Devil' containing certain traits owing a nod to the old NWOBHM establishment, 'Clearing the Blur', 'Lovers' Train' and title track 'Hail to the Heroes' teeter on the edge of the AOR/Melodic blade, certainly an album that touches the core genres across the Rock Spectrum, add in Sleaze, Hair Metal and a solid slice of Classic Rock, why not throw in a bit of funk'ism to 'Rock and Roll Jack' just for the hell of it. It takes to the penultimate track 'The Heaven's Crying' to offer a bit of solace in slowing the tempo down a touch but what a vocal this song has, 'Rock n Roll Fever' finishes off this colossal 45 minutes onslaught, which also features a few pals from Girish Pradhan's international band of brothers from Firstborne in Chris Adler & Myrone alongside one-time Dio Guitarist and previous GATC collaborator Rowan Robertson
Girish Pradhan's vocal range across the album from a Coverdale'd bark to the High Screech metal tones and everything in between, is the glue that binds this all together add to that some mean guitar work from six-string slayer Suraz Sun, driven by a hammering backline Rhythm Section of Yogesh Pradhan (Bass) & Nagen Mongrati (Drums), its easy to hear why Girish and the Chronicles have released one hell of a polished album in 'Hail to the Heroes'
Go on, give it a spin....
Track List:
Primeval Desire
Children Of The Night
I'm Not The Devil
Love's Damnation
Clearing The Blur
Lover's Train
Rock And Roll Jack
Hail To The Heroes
Shamans Of Time
The Heaven's Crying
Rock N' Roll Fever (ft. Chris Adler, Myrone, Rowan Robertson)
MG