Dualism

The first time I took notice of Majesty of Revival was in 2013 when they released “Iron Gods” on the (meanwhile defunct) Power Prog label. This record has been an interesting piece of Power/Prog Metal with a wider range of influences which led to a challenging listening experience.

The same can be said about their newest output “Dualism”. The main ingredients are still Power and Prog Metal with a lot of symphonic elements. However, one will also find Folk, neoclassical rhythms and even some more modern and slightly industrial influences here. There is no chance to dig everything on offer here in only one listening session.

Fortunately the guys from Majesty of Revival are great songwriters. There are a lot of fantastic and memorable harmonies and refrains distributed all over the album that will stick with the listener. The base sound reminds of bands like Symphony X combining hefty riffs with a lot of atmospheric background samples and impressive instrumental skills. Some of the harmonies and choirs used on “Nothingness” bring Blind Guardian to mind. Just go and check out “Inner Dimension” and I am pretty sure you are going to agree.

A lot of the tracks make use of piano parts and more or less each one has some orchestral pieces to offer. There is also a lot of soloing to be found here – provided not only by guitarist and vocalist DP but also by keyboarder Vladimir and even by bassist Tom. I have to admit that this can lead to a little overload for the average listener like myself.

The production is great making every instrument and details perfectly audible. It is modern and punchy without sounding sterile. Taking into account how much is going on here I have to take off my hat to the sound engineer. DP has a fitting voice and while he might not be on par with some of his colleagues he delivers in great fashion putting a lot of emotions into the vocals.

With 14 tracks and a running time of over 70 minutes a potential buyer gets a lot of value for the money. There can also be made an argument that a certain percentage of the songs could have been left out to create a more streamlined album without any filler material. On the other hand there is no really bad song but some outstanding ones so I am not going to hold this against the band.

Each fan of melodic, symphonic and progressive Metal music should risk an ear or two.

The third full-length from Ukrainian Neoclassical power metallers Majesty of Revival is yet another wholly strong and dynamic effort in their vastly-impressive catalog. Following a year of intense writing and recording, this impressive offering is released June 25, 2016 on Massive Sound Recordings.

Buoyed by the album’s strong riff-work, there’s a strong element charging along throughout the music here as the riffing takes on all series of challenging, progressive work here that offers technically-complex arrangements from tightly-wound speed metal leanings and fine thrash parts to soaring, majestic power metal anthems graced with plenty of fine keyboards running alongside those heavier pieces and tending to give this a widely-ranged and varied effort overall. It’s dynamic and wholly appealing in that there’s a strong attempt at variety here which definitely helps this one keep from overall repetition and familiarity that tends to dominate such material overall, though that plays up the first of the bands’ few small problems. The fact that it includes so many varying elements that the album as a whole is incredibly bloated and overlong, not just with ideas but in tracks as well. This could’ve easily been trimmed down a few songs in the running order to keep it to a more respectable length with this one carrying on with too many tracks featuring their admittedly-enjoyable take on these varied elements being present here and probably could’ve done with some trimming here and there to prune this one down a little. A fine start is the bands’ decision to include some rather obscure elements here as the few attempts at indie rock and more straightforward tracks don’t mesh so well with the more metallic work featured. Still, it’s not as big a problem as the other feature even though taking those out would help the bloated feeling.

There’s a lot of great work to be had here with the band spreading themselves out to include some varied and interesting elements into their core sound for an enjoyable if overlong offering that should really appeal to fans of the bands’ work in the past or those looking to explore the more progressive ends of the genre.