by Mark Kadzielawa

Holy Grail is a new heavy metal band. Their influences however date back to the classic years of the genre. They combine them with everything else that happen along the lines. Therefore, Holy Grail are a classic sounding band with very modern ideas.

Formed by the former member of White Wizard, Holy Grail quickly found their style, and wasted no time securing a proper record deal. The band consists of vocalist James Luna, guitarist James Larue, guitarist Eli Santana, bassist Blake Mount, and drummer Tyler Meahl.

Holy Grail were a very hard working band. Even before their album came out, the band completed several tours opening for various acts. The hard work paid off, Holy Grail was able to get signed to Prosthetic Records, and quickly complete a debut album, "Crisis in Utopia."

"Crisis in Utopia" is a strong debut, Holy Grail's fan base is multiplying quickly. The band promotes the album with very strong live performances, whether headlining or opening they are very dedicated to their cause. Holy Grail certainly is making a lot of waves in the world of heavy music, and quite rightfully so.

Vocalist, James Luna, talks about the beginning of Holy Grail, and the band's quick rise into the world of heavy metal.

What are the origins of Holy Grail?
James Luna: Originally we started in 2008. It was started by the three ex-members of the band White Wizard. We wanted to do something that was blessed, strictly purist, old school like Judas Priest and Iron Maiden. We wanted to add more thrash metal into it and even some death metal influences. We left, that band (White Wizard) and started Holy Grail.
How long did it take you to develop your style and sound?
I think once we had Eli (Santana), writing in the mix, it all went forward. I mean we only have this first album, so we’re still very new. We had the EP out before, but that music ended up on the album too. The EP was just two songs to promote the album. We just wanted the people to have a taste of what the music is like when we record it.



You came from somewhat of an established act, but how long did it take for Holy Grail to gain label interest?
Before we were even a band, the labels were interested in what we were doing. Once we had five demo songs, we had like a raffle between different labels, and we ended up going with Prosthetic Records because they’ve matched every offer that was on the table. The whole time they were just really cool guys. So, we went with them based on that vibe. This was very different from White Wizard. We left the band before they signed a deal, and the bass player was shopping the band as if he still had members. He ended up signing with Earache.
Since writing your first songs to now, how is the band progressing in your opinion?
I think it’s a lot more highly technical and melodic. It has a lot more modern sound to it that we didn’t have so much right in the beginning.
With so many new bands out there, what’s the key point for Holy Grail to attract the fans?
I think that it’s just timeless metal, that is somewhat familiar, but still fresh.
Did you achieve everything you set out to do with your debut album?
I think we could’ve done a lot more than we did. I think it could’ve taken us about 4/5 months until we really were happy with everything. And even at that point we still wouldn’t be completely satisfied. It was just kind of like, let’s do it and get it done. We got to the point where everyone was pretty happy, but I think the album could always be better. But that’s like you’re being your own worst critic.

Who is responsible for creating the material?
For this album it was the three of us. It was myself, Eli and James Larue. The two guitar players, and myself. And usually my songs are more like chorus and verse oriented, and their songs are real technical, and very solo oriented. Eli going into this attempted 200 riffs, and I think he stopped at 180. From those riffs he compiled 30 rough song ideas, and then I had six, and James (Larue) had three. Plus we had five songs from the demo. So, we had had about 40 songs from which we chose our favorite eleven. And with those, it was just kind of like sending files back and forth to each other, or playing parts, and working out parts together. We were just polishing this skeleton, and flushing it out into a full song.
You’ve mentioned sending files to each other, does it mean you don’t live close to each other?
We do, but using files makes it faster instead of driving 30 minutes somewhere. You just send a file, and it gets there in the matter of second. It’s all done over in FTP, and you just have the song, you can work there on it on your computer. For this album, we’ve used more computers then let’s say a rehearsal room. We had like a month to do it, so we just pounded it out on the computer. I think a lot of nuances come out when you play the songs in the rehearsal, stuff that wouldn't come out on the computer. You know like you're feeding off each other. We didn't get that until after we've already go into the pre-production.
So, when you play the songs live, do you find yourself adding things to them?
I think the songs are still growing as we play them live. There'll be extra licks, or extra shouts. It's like we're adding the extra icing on the cake.



You’ve done tours without an album, so now that it is out, what response are you experiencing?
Mostly it’s been really positive response. Some people are kind of turned off though by the newer production. They expected a purist 80s recording, but we wanted to make it sound like it’s 2010, not like it’s 1983. So that’s kind of where we wanted to go with that record.
What’s your overall philosophy on how you write and present your music?
Just a lot of catchy song with lots of shredding and soloing. We want to mix the classic sound with more modern sound. We’re not sure where we fit in the genre, because it’s such a wide genre. It’s difficult to pinpoint us directly. I would say we’re just a straight up heavy metal band.

Links:
http://www.facebook.com/holygrailofficial