Majesty

This is Majesty from New York, the pre-Dream Theater band. Back in the days these guys played great music with a good deal of upsurge and attitude, before turning themselves into one of the most $ucce$$ful progressive metal bands. As every band that was trying prog metal in that period, Majesty bled an epic US power/prog metal with some Fates Warning, Queensrÿche or Rush influences. This era is probably Dream Theater's peak, before they $tart wanking things up and down, with music that went nowhere. Note that I’m reffering to the period after A Change of Seasons!

The stand-out track here is : Another Won, which is to me an underground power/prog masterpiece! That part with the solo is one of my favourite from this genre(s), and great climax too. John Petrucci nailed it here - emotion, lots of reverb to create epic dreamy atmosphere, and slightly neoclassic tint. The keyboards handled by Kevin Moore are very present throughout all the tracks., providing a great background. Chris Collins, an obssessed Geoff Tate fan (also Geddy Lee influences can be heard), sings with such fiery passion that sometimes he overflows and sounds off-key. But he is listenable for example in Another Won or Your Majesty.

The lyrical level is not as high, complex, diverse and filled with poetic artistry as Fates Warning's (or others), but its acceptable and complements the overall feel of their music. The sound of this demo is muffled so it'll not sound fine to some ears.

Recommended ? Hell yeah!

This demo was made back when Dream Theater were just young Rush-loving kids looking to rise to metal stardom. Back then, they weren't as epic, they weren't as musically accomplished, and they weren't as brilliant as they are now. Hell, they weren't even called Dream Theater then. They released this under the name of Majesty, a name which they had to have known wouldn't last.

Well, the musicians. Dream Theater have never been a band like, say, Alice Cooper or Black Sabbath with a ton of lineup changes. Every member, with the exception of the vocalist, went on to be in Dream Theater, and everyone but Kevin are still in the band today. Speaking of the vocalist, he's not very good. Now, in some of my past reviews I seem to obsess over the quality of the vocalist, either good or bad. I won't do this too much here. See, most bands, when they start out, have crappy singers that suck completely. Chris Collins is not one of these singers. He isn't the best, not by a long shot, but he manages to sound almost exactly like Charlie Dominici (which is a good thing). He's pretty average, but standable. Anyway, enough about him. Let's get into the music, shall we?

The songs on this demo sound just like the ones on When Dream And Day Unite, meaning they sound like cool Queensryche-type music with keyboards. But, John Petrucci doesn't really do anything special on guitar here, which surprised me. The bass is much more audible here than on any of their studio albums, and Myung does some cool slapping and popping. Now, normally, I would describe the songs. But, they all sound pretty much the same, with a few differences. This does take away from the album, but it is surprisingly cohesive, so it doesn't take it away as much as, say, Mayhem's De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas. Read any review for WDADU, and you'll pretty much be able to figure out what the songs sound like.

Overall, this isn't a bad demo. But it could DEFINITELY have been better. If you can find it, I would reccomend getting it, if only to be a true Dream Theater fan. But don't expect an early A Change of Seasons here.