Album number six for Judicator is quite an important one. OK, every album a band produces is important, but “The Majesty Of Decay” is the band’s first to be led solely by vocalist John Yelland after the departure of guitarist and fellow co-founder T. Cordisco (Alicia Cordisco) after 2020’s “Let There Be Nothing”. Unapologetically heavily influenced by Blind Guardian right from their debut back in 2012, Judicator championed the earlier 90’s era Blind Guardian sound much loved and until recently, much missed by many a Blind Guardian fan throughout the world. However, a couple of months ago, Blind Guardian only went and released “The God Machine”, an excellent album harking right back to those early days, almost as if the band had realised that some younger pups out there were doing what they used to do so well and decided to prove that they could still cut the metal mustard. Judicator were suddenly dealt a double blow you might think…or were they? After all, a new line-up might just give the band a chance to reinvent themselves a little and follow their own path maybe? And to certain extent this is what they’ve done.

There’s no denying that John Yelland’s vocals have more than a passing similarity to Hansi Kursch, and when you add in undeniably Guardian-esque guitar lines the similarity seems to multiply. Drummer Jordan Elcess has been a part of the band since 2014 so the powerful rhythms are still plenty in evidence, more than adequately driven onwards by new bassist John Dolan, so no real change there, but as well as admirably following an Andre Olbrich road map, new guitarist Balmore Lemus injects a little more of his own style into the music, which I like to hear. The music still has some interesting progressive sections, but the guitars don’t sound quite as high in the mix as they were on their previous album, which means that Yelland’s vocals are encouraged to carry the songs a little more than previously – which of course he does faultlessly, but it feels a little like the time-forged way that he and Cordisco used to play off each other – that magical, unexpected spark, is missing in the arrangements.

But a new guitar/vocal partnership will take time to develop and if this was a debut album with nothing to compare it to, I would see Power Metal gems like ‘Ursa Major’ as pure excellence, which it is, but this is a quality that is almost expected for a band this talented, who are on their sixth album and with such a robust back catalogue. This is a bloody good Power Metal album and no doubt the first step by a band who sound a little like Blind Guardian finding their own direction and their own identity, as hinted at by the slightly more experimental ‘High Priestess’ for example with its piano, Hammond organ and…brass section (??!!). I kind of wish I hadn’t heard anything by Judicator before, because it makes it difficult to judge this album purely on its own merits, however this is undeniably still a great Progressive Power Metal album by a band on a new phase of their identity, and as this unit gel further in the future I reckon even greater things are to follow.

(8/10 Andy Barker)

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