Majestica – Power Train | soundsfromthedarkside

All aboard the power train! Majestica is back!

Six years after their debut album and five after the wonderful A Christmas Carol, which still is a holiday staple in my festive rotation scheme, Sweden’s Majestica are back with the aptly named new album Power Train. The band around former Sabaton guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Tommy Johansson took their time to release a new record, but was the long gestation time worth the wait? The answer is two-fold.

As the sound of the power train rolling across the tracks leads us into the album proper, it’s clear that Majestica does not waste time to get to the point. Clocking in at just over four minutes, it’s the epitome of upbeat, fun power metal with soaring vocals, searing guitar solos and a chorus that will make you want to scream along, punching the air with one or both of your fists. It’s as joyous as they get, especially with the accompanying, frivolous video clip. It’s a rousing start that continues with the energetic No Pain, No Gain and rambunctious Battle Cry. It’s a three-song home run and an excellent starting point.

It’s unfortunately then that Power Train grinds to a violent halt with Megatrue, a chugging mid-tempo slog that plays on the same clichés as the worst “metal anthems” you will know and either hate or love by bands like Manowar or Hammerfall. It’s the kind of metal loving cheese that somehow only those two bands can really get away with convincingly and is seldomly replicated successfully. In other words: it needs to die in a fire and it takes the speed out of an otherwise fine album, and I would even go so far as to state that it sours the mood after an otherwise fantastic start.

The rest of the album is indubitably fine, with highlights like A Story in the Night, My Epic Dragon and Alliance Anthem picking up the pace again, but Power Train never really recovers from the dumpster fire that is Megatrue, a song so truly horrendous that it casts a dour shadow over everything that comes after, and that’s a crying shame.

At the end of the line, Power Train is a fine album. A really good one even, perhaps. It’s full of frantic, speedy power metal and when it’s good, it’s really good. I would just advise everyone to restructure the playlist on your streaming platform of choice and cut out Megatrue from it altogether. You can thank me later.

Label: Nuclear Blast Records

Buy it here: https://bangover.rocks/collections/majestica

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