Thinking about it, I’d have probably picked Nuclear Blast for Swedish power doom trio Grand Magus as far as new labels go, but according to Blabbermouth, it’s Roadrunner all the way. “For the win,” as they say on the intertubes. And with a marketing and distribution network behind them like that of the metal powerhouse, who knows what’s to come for Grand Magus. One hopes for a US tour, at very least. Congrats to the band, and here’s looking forward to the new album. Behold the news:

Roadrunner Records has announced the signing of Swedish heavy rockers Grand Magus.

Grand Magus is a three-piece band featuring “JB” Christofferson (guitar, lead vocals), Fox Skinner (bass, backing vocals) and Sebastian “Seb” Sippola (drums).

During the band’s 10-year history, Grand Magus has released two demos, one split EP and four full-length albums, and has received overwhelmingly positive reviews throughout. Their last opus, Iron Will, was voted “Album of The Month” in the German Metal Hammer and Rock Hard magazines.

Drawing hefty influences from the hand-on-heart grandeur of the NWOBHM and the inspirational mythology of their forbears, Grand Magus is steeped in pre-Christian tales of triumph, vengeance, betrayal, wisdom and death. But Grand Magus also stands for energetic live performances, as seen at this year’s European festivals such as Sweden Rock, Hellfest, Wacken, Summer Breeze and on tour in Europe with bands like At the Gates, Cathedral, Candlemass, Tyrant, Serpentcult and Electric Wizard.

Roadrunner Records will release Grand Magus‘ new album, Hammer of the North, in spring/early summer of 2010. On this CD, Grand Magus has perfected its own style of full-on metal assault with fantastic heavy riffing and stomping songs, strong hook-lines, epic vocals/lyrics and rousing solo guitars.

Commented Grand Magus: “We are thrilled with working with Roadrunner Records. We regard this both as a great sign of recognition and most importantly a chance for us to really push ourselves and the music to the point of perfection. We are confident that the team of us and Roadrunner will be something really special.”

NOTE: Before this review gets under way, I’d just like to say I’m a huge nerd for Steven Wilson, so please take these comments in the context of coming from a fan. Not even going to feign impartiality on this one.

Like Opeth before them, UK proggers Porcupine Tree are the latest in the league of already well-established bands to join the Roadrunner Records roster, and they do so with The Incident, an album that, although it?s bound to get wider exposure than some of their previous releases (Deadwing cries out from the abyss for a deluxe RR reissue that in all likelihood won?t happen) and thus sell better, seems less centrally focused on songwriting and more given to ambient passages and open spaces in the music.

Frontman, guitarist, singer, songwriter and engineer Steven Wilson flirted on Porcupine Tree?s last opus, 2007?s Fear of a Blank Planet, with the idea of one album-length song, resulting in the 17-minute centerpiece cut ?Anesthetize.? On The Incident, he once again takes up the challenge, seeing it through to completion across the disc?s 14 separate tracks as one continuous, sometimes meandering, piece of music. Those who?ve followed Wilson since 2002?s Lava Records breakthrough album, In Absentia will be interested to learn the coalescence that seemed to take place within his songwriting, the contraction of his methodology that led to such landmark cuts as ?Strip the Soul,? ?Shallow? and ?Arriving Somewhere but Not Here,? has once again begun to spread out, and although songs like ?The Yellow Windows of the Evening Train,? ?Degree Zero of Liberty? and ?Occam?s Razor? — as well as several others — hover around two minutes in length, what they offer is breathing room between more substantive movements, like ?The Incident? or ?The Blind House.? How necessary they are in the first place is a matter for listeners to decide on their own, but one might consider them the equivalent experiments to the electronic dissonance that showed itself on last year?s Wilson solo outing, Insurgentes. At least he?s trying something new.

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Chances are that when a giant rock from outer space smashes into the rest of our governmentally-respirated economy and the book is closed on Western Civilization as we now see it, the circles are few and far between in which Roadrunner Records A&R legend Monte Conner is going to be remembered for exposing us all to the likes of Floodgate and Karma to Burn.

But, few and far between though they are, they’re these circles, damn it, so when I had the chance to talk to Conner, it wasn’t the stories about Max Cavalera and Sepultura or Glen Benton and Deicide that I wanted to hear (though those stories are awesome as well). I wanted to know about why the first Queens of the Stone Age record was put out by Roadrunner in Europe and not the US. I wanted to know why the version of Leadfoot’s Bring it On that I paid a dollar for in the junk bin at a record store has his label’s logo on it, but not the one I had from way back whenever that album came out. And I wanted to know why stoner rock makes for bad business when for the most part the music is traditionally structured and easily accessible. Well, fortunately Monte’s a bit of a talker. And unbeknownst to many — but, I admit, knownst to me before I set up the phoner — he’s actually a pretty big stoner rock fan.

Just on the other side of that “Read More” link down there, Conner opines on the above, how come the genre has never taken off commercially, and much more, including some of his all-time favorite stoner bands and albums. Enjoy.

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