Thy Majestie - Dawn

Published January 13 2009

*=Staff's pick	Chapter One: Exequies of the Formal Sphere - As You Fall* - M.A.D - Dawn - The Hunt Chapter Two- The Neverending Night The Legacy Suite: - Of Pain and Disgrace - To An Endless Devotion* - Inferis Armata - Two Minutes Hate - The Legacy - Out The Edge* Chapter Three: Vendetta- A New Dawn - Day Of The Changes* - Through Heat And Fire

Genre	Progressive Power Metal	Dario Cascio	Vocals
Tracks	12	Simone Campione	Guitar
Runningtime	52 Min.	-	Guitar
Label	Dark Balance Records	Dario D'Alessandro	Bass
Release	01 September 2008	Claudio DiPrima	Drums
Country	Italy	Valerio Castorino	Keyboard
Similar artists	Labÿrinth, Kamelot, Vision Divine

With two very good releases (Hastings 1066 & Jeanne d'Arc) to live up to, Italian Thy Majestie returns and passes on that torch to the new chapters of Dawn. Since last time though only two band members remain of that line up. In the ranks there are now new acquaintances on vocal and keyboard position and the former guitar duo is split in half. Based on this member turmoil and to make the songs more suitable for the new vocalist, Thy Majestie has on Dawn followed suit with many other bands and to some extent transformed their sonic landscape. The epic historic concepts with the symphonic metal base have been given less legroom and we are introduced to a more technical and progressive sounding album. That is, fewer resemblances with Rhapsody and more from Labÿrinth, Vision Divine and Kamelot to give the general sound illustration.

Out of the three chapters of the album, it's pretty much a dead run between them, where nothing either takes off into the stratosphere or falls flat faced in the gutter. 12 songs, whereof 4 are instrumental, and the whole package divided into 3 chapters. It's mostly during the instrumental parts and verse sections of the songs that the progressive elements dominate the most and the musical shift is most evident. Tracks like M.A.D, The Hunt and To an Endless Devotion bear strong witness of this with their more mid tempo paced build ups and verses while Day of the Changes, Out the Edge and As you Fall showcase most traces of the symphonic metal from the past.

No matter the somewhat new musical orientation, the band still has the nack for writing memorable and emotional refrains and as good as all songs contain those familiar inputs acquaintances to the band should easily spot. It's just that the road leading to them is not as straight and symphonic metal fuelled as we're used to. There should also be no trouble identifying the band vocally either since Dario Casco sounds pretty much like any other Italian metal singer, his predecessor included. The only major differences between the two are that Casco gives a fresher and more solid performance while at the same time lacking a little in warmth and presence.

What's most impressive with Dawn is that the band despite all the new members still managed to deliver an album of this quality. You get quite a mouthful of good solos and riffing, excellent drumming, catchy melody lines and a good production. What I mostly miss is the pompousness, epic feel, atmosphere and the higher amount of stand out killer tracks of the forerunners in the discography. Conclusively Dawn is a good album that should please the already established fan base and followers of bands like Vision Divine, Labÿrinth and Kamelot. To get the most memorable Thy Majestie listening experience though, I instead recommend you to wander the historical grounds and battlefields of Hastings and Medieval France.