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.