Review Summary: Mediocre power metal with some signs of greatness, but those signs are restricted by the vocals
Black Majesty are an Australian power/speed metal band that has appartenty recieved a lot of critical acclaim in their native country, but with this release I'm not quite sure why.
There is some talent and decent sonwriting in the instrumental departments of the band, but I could not get over how not good the singer is (I didn't say bad, just not good). His "normal" singing voice is not entirely terrible to listen to, but when he tries to do those heavy metal falsetto-screams, it just makes me cringe every time; and he does them a lot. Plus, the vocal melodies are nothing special; none of the choruses made me want to sing along, and although there are guest backup vocalists, I didn't get any of that powerful, pumping-fist emotion that I believe should come from power metal.
The rest of the band on the other hand, are not bad at all. Both guitarists are plenty capable of playing their instruments. This album is full of fast, muted riffs and almost every song has a high quality, technical solo in it. The drummer is good as far as power metal goes, with the standard double bass rythym making up virtually every song. They don't have an official bass player, so therefore bass it is pretty much non-existant on this album.
There are very few parts that stand out to me, its just pretty much constant speed metal with a few slower verses thrown in once in a while. The bridge in "Bleeding World" is pretty good, with muted guitars and the drummer playing a not entirely original but interesting none-the-less riff which then goes into a speedy solo (thats pretty much the only part of this CD that I really enjoyed). They also cover Deep Purple's "Soldier of Fortune," which slows down the pace a little and gives the listener a little bit of a break from the otherwise pounding songs, but its still nothing that I would call "great."
Overall, this CD is pretty average. If you're into fast power metal, then you might enjoy this, but if just getting into the genre or if you haven't heard Black Majesty before, I wouldn't recommend it.
Recommended Songs:
Forever Damned
Evil in Your Eyes
Bleeding World
