ALBUM REVIEW: Above The Sky – Majestica

It’s always a special moment when your debut album is released, but even more so when it comes on one of the biggest metal labels in the world. That’s what is in store for MAJESTICA, a power metal band from Sweden whose record Above The Sky is out now via Nuclear Blast. In the grand scheme of things, this is their seventh studio album, the previous six having been released under their previous guise of REINXEED, but this marks their major label debut and one that has been in the making for fifteen years, given their formation way back in 2004.

If we are to treat this as a brand new band beginning their career, then Above The Sky displays serious potential. It starts solid enough with the title track which sees good bass work from Chris David, if nothing particularly spectacular. Rising Tide kicks things up a notch, the more fantastical lyrics working well alongside Tommy Johannson’s soaring vocals. By far and away though, the best song on the album is Night Call Girl: shorter and punchier, the chorus is seriously infectious and will provide a tasty little earworm for days on end whilst the throwback feel of the NOWBHM hey days of the 1980’s is done excellently, a retro track for the modern age. The triumvirate are ably supported by The Way To Redemption and closing track Alliance Forever, which continue the sound so typical of power metal with squealing guitars, complex solos and furious drumming.

For all that power metal is meant to be bombastic and over the top however, there is still a line to be toed if one is to avoid getting too silly; unfortunately, MAJESTICA have fallen foul of this on several occasions. The Rat Pack is let down by shoddy lyric-work, lines like ‘Get out your wallet and I’ll draw my sword/Credit cards won’t help when I summon my hordes’ presenting all the menace of a Dungeons & Dragons player trying to intimidate the high school bully, whilst Mötley True is not only too bloated even for a genre that thrives on pomp and circumstance but has a title that could incite a legal case later down the line from a certain American heavyweight. The nadir, though, is Father Time, which fails to hit the mark completely from the cringe-worthy writing about the titular character justifying killing Santa and his reindeer to the wholly unnecessary snippet of the Can-can midway through. If it had been a novelty bonus track then it might have been salvageable, but choosing to have it as part of the main track-listing is a serious misstep that impacts the album’s overall delivery considerably.

A mixed bag then for MAJESTICA – there are moments where they really sparkle and in Night Call Girl they prove they have the ability to write some serious tunes; in fact, that song alone is enough to get the album over the line. Given that this is not their first rodeo and they are seasoned musicians however, they should be producing material much better than a number of tracks on Above the Sky, and ultimately that has let them down this time around.

Rating: 6/10

Above The Sky is out now via Nuclear Blast Records. 

Like MAJESTICA on Facebook.