Black Majesty
Children of the Abyss

Four points again, it seems as though I go for the albums that are quite good but not that special, like the new album by Black Majesty. The same could be said about the predecessor that I reviewed in 2015; in fact the most memorable thing about Black Majesty is that Robert in 2003 described their vocalist as a torture device. I never heard that album or anything by the band before 2015 and I cannot really say that I remember much of the 2015 release either but I did read in my own review that I liked the cover of Our in the Fields – other than that it was a rather forgettable release it appears and perhaps I was a bit friendly with the ratings. I think this one is better.

Of course the music is the same kind of European styled power metal as the previous album, that Grapow has been involved in the production should be a good indicator of how it sounds. The artwork looks a lot better than the music sounds, and the Australians don’t really offer much in terms of fresh ideas or musical surprises. This singer may not be that good a device for torturing people but he isn’t great either, the production is very strong though and the album offers plenty of power and energy with high paced songs – that’s a plus. A bit long album though, 47 minutes and not really much variation and that coupled with lack of originality means that one feels that it could have been shorter and that less would have been more.

Unsurprisingly I think that this is an album for the fans, fans of the band and fans of the genre and not really something that will reach a particularly wide audience. Not because it is a poor album, I rather like it as the energy and power is great and really likeable, but because there are better albums in the genre and this albums doesn’t really have anything that makes it stand out despite a track with dragon in the title. The best track is probably the second one while the dragon infused opener is a rather dreary track so the second also really starts the album. The end is quite good as well and overall I would claim that it is good but not good enough to really stand out.

Right then, four points is probably the only logical rating for this album, three would be too low as it is too good for that and higher rating is the same as it is too poor for that. It is probably an album that will appeal only to the fans of the band, and it is an album that feels more solid than great.

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