ALBUM REVIEW: Vast Reaches Unclaimed – Majesties

The Jester Race by IN FLAMES, The Gallery by DARK TRANQUILITY, and Slaughter Of The Soul by AT THE GATES are arguably the cornerstones of melodic death metal. The pioneering pillars to which every band, including themselves, have sought to top. Had Vast Reaches Unclaimed, the debut album from MAJESTIES, been released in the 90s, there’s no doubt they’d have made it a Big 4.

MAJESTIES – which merges OBSEQUIAE’s Tanner Anderson with INEXORUM’s Matthew Kirkwold and Carl Skiddum – take the template their forebears began in the 90s and transform it into an otherworldly masterpiece. Opening duo In Yearning, Alive and The World Unseen are red herrings – lovingly crafted shrines to the Gothenburg golden days – before Our Gracious Captor and Verdant Paths To Radiance shoot you through the stratosphere, soundtracking your journey through hyperspace into intergalactic warfare.

Vast Reaches Unclaimed is no misnomer. Twin guitar harmonies descend like angels from the heavens above, waging war with Anderson’s demonic double bass drumming and blitzkrieg blast-beats, his anguished vocals hiding underneath the mix like a lost soul punished in purgatory. Imagine IN FLAMES fronted by ABBATH, the black metal backbone of these Minnesotans blending effortlessly into existence; it’s undeniably catchy, undeniably heavy, and undeniably epic.

The albums that defined the Gothenburg sound were arguably made by their respective bands’ definitive line-ups. As Seekers Of The Ineffable – a track that has you torn between air guitaring yourself into Valhalla or circle-pitting until you’re unconscious – and Sidereal Spire bring Vast Reaches Unclaimed to its second half, it’s clear there’s an alchemical connection between the trio that runs like liquid luck through their songs.

Cinematic in scope, Vast Reaches Unclaimed is an endless journey in that it not only moves from track to track, weaving a conceptual web for you to create as you travel the cosmos, but that you could easily return to it time after time like those classic films you turn to when nothing else will do. Where others would’ve driven Across The Neverwhen into a valley of progressive death metal, stretching the sum of its parts until it no longer resembles the vision, MAJESTIES wrap it up in three and a half minutes with equal parts delicacy and ferocity.

Vast Reaches Unclaimed is a labour of love; produced and engineered entirely by MAJESTIES, with mixing and mastering from Adam Tucker (THOU, VILE CREATURE), its meticulous mixing might appear muddying to the untrained ear, yet it’s a masterstroke for spinning narratives. Take Temporal Anchor’s rallying cry screams that bring every instrument crashing into existence, like someone suddenly being summoned into flesh by the song’s namesake; City Of Nine Gates’ blizzard of blast-beats and double bass drilling holes into your brain, a battering ram bursting through to the city as Anderson’s commanding vocals lead the charge lowly in the mix like they’re tucked away in a Trojan Horse; or Journey’s End’s eerie wading water and arising melodic guitars, like windchimes in the breeze before Anderson’s drumming erupts underneath the main mix, threatening this rare tranquillity as a volcano covers your eardrums.

On Vast Reaches Unclaimed, MAJESTIES have simultaneously constructed a monument to melodic death metal’s golden days and crafted its riveting return. When one is caught air-drumming in the cosy confines of a high street coffee shop, melodic death metal has done its job. Mark our words, do not sleep on MAJESTIES, they may just be the future masters of blackened melo-death.

Rating: 9/10

Vast Reaches Unclaimed is set for release on March 3rd via 20 Buck Spin.

Like 20 Buck Spin on Facebook.