Majesty - Hellforces

*=Staff's pick	The Blessing Hellforces* Dance With The Demon Sons Of A New Millennium* Heavy Metal Desire March For Victory Like A Raptor* Guardians of the Dragon Grail Freedom Heart Fight Forever Nowhere Man Metal Law 2006*

Genre	Heavy Metal	Tarek Maghary	Vocals
Tracks	12	Rolf Munkes	Guitar
Runningtime	48 Min.	Björn Daigger	Guitar
Label	Massacre Records	Marcus Bielenberg	Bass
Release	24 Feb. 2006	Michael Gräter	Drums
Country	Germany	Tarek Maghary	Keyboards
Similar artists	U.D.O., Judas Priest, Manowar

With their new album, the german metallers Majesty take a distinct step away from the Manowar sound that they have had throughout their career. Now it is a darker, heavier, slower and, I have to say, more mature approach. Instead of immediatly seeing Manowar in front of my eyes when a song starts, this time names like Judas Priest and U.D.O./Accept are popping up.

During the first spin of the album I was constantly thinking how close to U.D.O.'s sound they had come, both when it comes to guitar sound, the massive and thick sound picture in general, and also in the way the bridges and refrains are built. I thought it might be influences from the tour they did with U.D.O. last year. Around song three I was convinced that Stefan Kaufmann, who previously has just mixed one of Majesty's albums, had had more to do with this production than I initially thought because it strongly bears his trademark. It continues throughout the album and when in the very last song Metal Law 2006, which is a killer track by the way, no one less than Udo Dirkschneider show up as guest vocalist there was no doubt anymore. When I later checked up on the facts it turns out that, of course - the album is recorded, produced and mixed by Stefan Kaufmann at Roxx Studios.

Form having suspected that Kaufmann have helped out quite a lot with the arrangements of the songs and perhaps even written a riff or two, I have come to think that Majesty actually have been given some left over songs from U.D.O.'s garbage bin. That is how close they are in structure and sound. If that is the case, I am surprised because the songs are in many case slightly better than almost any song on U.D.O's last effort Mission X. Just replace Tareks vocals with Udo's and you have an U.D.O. song. Like A Raptor, Fight Forever and Nowhere Man in all their simplicity are the best examples of this. Short but powerful and mighty refrains.

Hellforces is solid work fully in par with their earlier works and they have kept the good parts and just added more maturity and other influences from other bands apart from Manowar. But even though they have taken a turn to the more classic heavy metal sound and structure, there are still some Manowar in this. They have simply picked the best from that and added other styles to it. We get a perfectly balanced mix of uptempo and galopping songs and heavier and slower ones with a good mix of the above mentioned bands who serve as influences and of course their own characteristic sound which we should not forget and which is an ingredient as important as any other.

Unfortunatly the big picture is being a bit soiled by a couple of too banal songs (Freedom Heart, parts of March Of Victory), so I will still hold Reign In Glory as their best album so far, but this album sure has potential to eventually climb to number one. This is definitly a step in the absolute right direction and I will in a straight posture continue to say that I am a fan of Majesty and damn proud of it.

See also review of: Rebels , Generation Steel , Thunder Rider , Reign In Glory , Sword And Sorcery

Production	Vocals	Compositions
8	7,5	7

Summary
7 chalices of 10 - Tommy