New Music Review : Ultima Grace 2022 Debut Album : CD Album Music Review : Dangerdog Music Reviews : Craig Hartranft

March 2025

Alliance: Before Our Eyes
Ginevra: Beyond Tomorrow
Phil X & The Drills:
Pow! Right In The Kisser
IQ: Dominion
Heart Line: Falling Heaven
Gotthard: Stereo Crush
Defender: Dying To Live
Streetlight: Night Vision

February 2025

Robin McAuley: Soulbound
Perfect Plan: Heart Of A Lion
Craig Brooks: Desolation Freeway
Mantric Momentum: Alienized
Pattern-Seeking Animals: Friend Of All Creatures
Crazy Lixx: Thrill Of The Bite
Ginger Evil: The Way It Burns
Dream Theater: Parasomnia
Tyran: Tyran's Oath
Saber: Lost In Flames

January 2025

Wildness: Avenger
The Ferrymen: Iron Will
Labyrinth: In The Vanishing Echoes Of Goodbye
Bonfire: Higher Ground
The Big Deal: Electrified
Landfall: Wide Open Sky

December 2024

After Lapse: Pathways
Illusion Force: Halfana
Powell-Payne: Voilá

November 2024

Sunstorm: Restless Fight
Storace: Crossfire
Voodoo Circle: Hail To The King
Lionville: Supernatural
Starchaser: Into The Great Unkown
Empires Of Eden: Guardians Of Time
Lonerider: Down In The Dust
Seventh Crystal: Entity
Neal Morse & The Resonance: No Hill For A Climber
Beardfish: Songs For Beating Hearts
Impellitteri: War Machine
Brothers Of Metal: Fimbulvinter

[ More Music Reviews ]

Ultima Grace: Ultima Grace

Symphonic/Melodic/Power Metal

4.0/5.0

Facebook Twitter Instagram
Frontiers Music
Words: Craig Hartranft
Added: 07.09.2022 | Released: 09.09.2022

Hailing from Japan, Ultima Grace was created by Japanese keyboard wizard Yuhki (Galneryus, Alhambra). Yuhki is assisted by fellow Japanese musicians, notably from Alhambra. But the band takes on an international aspect with Anette Olzon. You read that right, Ms Olzon from Dark Element and former Nightwish fame. The album was released in the Land Of The Rising Sun last march, but Frontiers Music is giving it an international push with it's release this month.

Ultima Grace

Your first thought when hearing that a band was created by a keyboard player is that you would find those keyboards as the focus of the arrangements. You may be correct, to a point. I was surprised and pleased that Yuhki allows for the more common elements of traditional power metal be equal partners with his synths.

The guitar parts, riffs and solos, are abundant. The rhythm section never fails to give each song groove and gallop. And, despite being mildly subdued by the mix, Ms Olzon finds herself in a familiar element (sans operatic orchestral nature of her Nightwish gig). Nevertheless, Yuhki's keyboards abound in frequent solos, solos that could be easily confused with guitar solos. Also, he can give his synths some church or cathedral like tones, notably within Powers Of North And East. However, and fundamentally, Yuhki and friends are not reinventing the power metal wheel. Nope. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

One thing that is characteristic of the Japanese take on power metal is this: they have no qualms about being fast, heavy, and bombastic as possible. If Ultima Grace and some European power metal band would have a MMA-like throw down, I think Ultima Grace kick European ass. Other monumentally outrageous power metal songs include The Lost, Beguile The Night, and Getting On With Life.

Ultimately (pun intended), if you dig grandiose and bombastic power metal, you will need to add Ultima Grace's debut album to your routine listening rotation. Recommended.

CraigHartranft.net - New fiction, crime fiction by Craig Hartranft

Note: All Amazon advertising in this review first benefits the artist, then Craig Hartranft also receives a residual. Click, and thanks for your support.