It seems a bit daft stating that you can sometimes actually hear nostalgia but anyone who cut teeth on the emerging melodic death metal scene of Sweden in the mid 90’s will definitely do so on giving Majesties debut album a spin. It’s exactly what we are promised too, no trying to deny it but stating it as a fact, that we are going to be taken back to the days of labels like No Fashion & Wrong Again as well as seminal albums like In Flames The Jester Race here. Behind this project we have two members of Inexorum who I can’t say I particularly know, along with Tanner Anderson of Obsequiae who they also play in live so are obviously well-coordinated together.
The second play is pressed and we are flung headlong into ‘In Yearning Alive’ we may as well be back in Gothenburg when things were truly exciting. Galloping riffs have that twisty turning fervour, drums thump hard and vocals are suitably snarly. Rest assured this is an album with no clean parts in that respect and is completely trend free and authentic. Melody is thorny and infectious and the style from Tanner is instantly familiar, it has that sound spilling over from those three excellent Obsequiae albums even if at the time you hadn’t put the melodic death metal side of things into the equation of the act genre wise, thinking of them more as a blackened medieval folk act. The barrage from the drums on tracks like ‘The World Unseen’ does batter away and presents the savagery of the melodic death metal sound as it was originally presented on albums like Dark Tranquillity’s Skydancer, Arch Enemy’s Black Earth and add to that those snarls Tanner is giving old Tompa a run for his money here. It’s obvious this trio are having fun with emulating such heady times, only breaking the drive to add some acoustic folk interludes. They even get a bit cheeky at times, just listen to the short stabbing riffs at the start of ‘Verdant Paths To Radiance’ and hear if it reminds you of anything in particular?
Historically that hard strumming guitar sound will also transport listeners back to the times before the root of the subject matter, there’s Iron Maiden, Thin Lizzy and even Skyclad here as reference points albeit in a more extreme form. It’s nigh on impossible not to headbang, play air guitar and even attempt shredding vocal chords along to this and the production too is bang on. I could have lost myself here and gone pulling many of the aforementioned albums off the shelves and given them a spin, this album practically urges you to do that and it’s near impossible not to heed its call.
The ten tracks have absolutely no distracting parts, flying by in a volatile and precise manner and never exceeding the sum of their parts. From the shortest banger that is ‘Seekers Of The Ineffable’ those flowing leads will have you spellbound, to the climax that is ‘Journey’s End’ this is a sheer delight throughout. Does it seem wrong that a trio of Americans have gone back and literally pillaged mid 90’s Sweden? Not when they have given us such an exhilarating and authentic ride as this! If you hunger for these times and have the original albums in your collection, you absolutely have to hear this album, simple as that. The one question it leaves you with is if this is a one off or not? It would kind of make sense if that was the case as Majesties have no doubt set out and done exactly what they intended here. Talk about capturing the crown!
(8.5/10 Pete Woods)
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