CoC : Majesty - Reign in Glory : Review

Majesty - _Reign in Glory_
(Massacre Records, 2003)
by: Adam Lineker (5.5 out of 10)

Many of you will have some kind of opinion on Manowar. I feel that I'm probably right in thinking that the view of them as a tasteless musical joke could be popular. Personally, I rather admire some of their earlier albums, but this is outweighed by my dislike for the school of heavy metal that they have spawned; a school that has been represented by some of the more deplorably moronic music which has drifted through my transom in recent years. So I'll wind up this gripe now. Majesty obviously worship at Manowar's altar, so the thematic concepts of _Reign in Glory_ are boneheaded in the extreme, as one would expect from songs entitled "Heavy Metal Battlecry", "Will of the Cobra", and "Into the Stadiums". The music itself is put through a very forced and unbalanced production, dry guitars slashing away under domineering and badly triggered drums, whilst thin and reedy vocals attempt to do a convincing metal falsetto. Majesty do come up with the odd decent riff or melodic passage, and there are some good arrangements, but all too few to make _Reign in Glory_ worthy of more than a couple of listens. Ultimately, Majesty are limited by the style of metal they play; this record has its fair share of passable 'metal anthems', but there just isn't enough variety or maturity to maintain my interest. Should one get past the tedious approach of this record, then one may actually enjoy it, if only for the rather dynamic, silly vibe that Majesty create with their homage to the metal gods; for my part, I cannot view this as a serious musical effort.

(article published 6/8/2004)