Glyph - Honour. Power. Glory. - CD

The men of Glyph have all been grinding away in the North American heavy metal underground for fifteen years, each building his own impressive CV: Jeff with epic Canadian warlords Gatekeeper, Rav with his extraordinary Ravenous project, Rob and Darin with cult Seattle NWOTHM favourites Greyhawk and Skeletor, among many others. However, after a long, hard struggle up the lower foothills of the music business, Glyph has arrived, instantly shooting these musicians into orbit. This is not just a heavy metal band, this is a crew of intergalactic mercenaries escaping a dying planet in their spaceship, the VSS Dragonlord. Clearly, Glyph aren’t just writing songs, they’re building worlds.

“It’s an all-encompassing world where we get to take every element of heavy metal that we enjoy, and we’re allowed to do them all,” enthuses Rav, aka Captain Voltaire. “It creates a good canvas for what the definition of Glyph really is; it’s not just the crew, it’s this whole brand. Glyph is like Marvel!”

So they’re thinking big, but the original concept was endearingly humble: “I had this idea for a straight but fun power metal band,” explains Jeff. “Music for theatres, clubs, festivals, for getting people moving. High fun factor, that’s the ultimate goal.” Having experienced the mass bonding power of European metal festivals like Wacken and Bloodstock, Jeff set himself the task of recreating that atmosphere in his Vancouver backyard – and nailed it first try. “I started cranking out ideas as quickly as I could, writing with a different approach than I normally do. I bounced them off the other guys, and it came together really fast.”

After a headhunting spree yielded Rob and Darin, Rav was the last to join – thanks largely to a fortuitous plane ride. “It was just because Jeff had a stopover in my city and needed somewhere to sleep!” Rav laughs. “He told me he was cooking up this band, I said I’ll try singing for it.” After the charismatic frontman straightaway aced Honour Pride Glory, Jeff handed all his songs over to Rav’s unique vocal and lyrical stamp.

It’s one thing for a line-up to slot into place so smoothly, but when an entire narrative concept album falls into place by pure chance, it feels like something magical is going on. “As we put all the songs together, it seemed to take a bit of a story arc, which was completely unintentional,” stresses Rav. “When we wrote the songs, our benchmark was: could drunken Germans enjoy singing it?!” he laughs. “But we found that the songs formulated a coherent arc based on the themes. I’ve never been in a project where I’ve written the lyrics and then found they make a pretty cool story!”

Having remotely pieced together a raft of fist-raising Euro-style bangers in the rich vein of Blind Guardian, Sabaton and Gloryhammer, Glyph were launched upon Earth at Wisconsin festival Mad With Power in 2023, the playback listening party accompanied by bandmates lobbing their CDs into the crowd. “The next day we got a call offering us to go on the Alestorm/Elvenking tour,” says Rav. “So it ramped up very quickly! But as musicians we know we can get together a week before the tour and be like, alright, first time playing together, let’s nail out these songs, and then hit the road and not miss a beat.”

Of all the joyous details in the band’s lurid backstory, one antipathy has particularly exercised the online power metal community: “We are the first power metal band to fuckin’ loathe and despise dragons!” proclaims Rav. “It’s the simplest thing that I thought up, and people are enraged. Bloody dragon sympathisers!” Jeff concurs: “People keep forgetting, the hero kills the dragon, guys!” With their world-building zeal still in its infancy, and so many more dragons to slay, one can only wonder at the possibilities for Glyph’s future.

Tracklist:
1. Honor, Power, Glory
2. March of the Northern Clan
3. A Storm of Crimson Fire
4. When the World Was Young
5. Defy the Night
6. Eldenfire
7. Sign of the Dragonlord
8. Glorious
9. Volaråd