As soon as a recent Dynazty track starts playing, it’s instantly recognizable as being them. This Modern Melodic Heavy Metal band occupy their own shelf (for want of a better visualisation) on the wall of Metal. Their music being as typically ‘them’, as the expertly delivered vocals of Nils Molin. Comparisons don’t really work, yes you could lob some musical nods towards Beast In Black or Manimal their way, just as you could mention recent Orden Ogan or even Pyramaze in the same breath, but no-one really crafts and delivers a Metal song the way Dynazty do. They’re kind of too heavy to be commercial, too melodic to be Speed Metal, too accessible to be Progressive Metal and not speedy or “gallopy” enough to be Power Metal. They’re just who they are really, they’re just Dynazty.
They’re a Melodic Heavy Metal band, who specialize in bostik-coated vocal hooks, over modern, synth-laden heavy guitar riffs and driving powerful rhythms, they’ve been this way now since probably “Titanic Mass” back in 2016. However, the band really nailed their style down with their debut AFM release “Firesign” in 2018, followed two years later by the slightly angrier and, well, darker “The Dark Delight”. Of those three albums, “Final Advent” probably has the most in common with “Firesign”. However, this is almost, and deliberately the definitive version of the band in this guise, concentrating on a cohesive album with flow and continuity, rather than slipping in a few curve-balls like on “The Dark Delight”. Though this album is not a step backwards in any way, the maturity the band continue to display with each release takes another step forward once more, spurred on in some way by Molin’s singing confidence rising even further as he becomes more at home as an established and integral part of the Amaranthe vocal trio.
On first listen this is a very slick album indeed, some songs almost wash over you unnoticed as the aforementioned flow of the album from track to track is so well executed, but further listens (as is always the case with Dynazty) show extra nuances in the vocals and much more depth to the music. Personally, I miss the guitar-led quirkiness of a track like ‘The Man and the Elements’ or the surprise of ‘The Road To Redemption’ (both from their last album), as “Final Advent” never strays too far away from the bands blueprint style. Maybe because of this, a few of the songs have a slight familiarity to others from Dynazty’s back catalogue (especially vocal melody-line wise, though this is maybe intentional on ‘The White’ as it’s the third track in a Trilogy started on “Firesign”), but this is just being hyper-critical, because Dynazty do what they do so damn well. There’s no doubt that this is an album which will certainly mark another positive step forward in the band’s relentless rise to greater popularity and one that current fans will absolutely adore.
(8/10 Andy Barker)
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