After talking to Tommy recently, obviously we had to review the album we’d talked about: Power Train. The name is a perfect one for a power metal album, as is the way the album kicks off – with a high pitched wail from the frontman himself.
As Tommy himself says about the album, the four key points are “Fast, extreme, melodic and… fast”. Title track “Power Train” leaves you in no doubt that the album as a whole will nail all four(!) of these. Having said that, Majestica are happy to forego one or other of these points to emphasise the others in any given song. Even by track two, “No Pain, No Gain”, the overall speed has dropped a little to give a far catchier rhythm than you’d otherwise get if things were at full tilt all the time. That doesn’t mean that the individual solos aren’t finger-blistering though. Yowsers.
Throughout the ten songs the pace rarely lets up, but the band have upped the ante in terms of production. Everything is crystal clear, and there are nice little layers of orchestral hits and plenty of backing vocals. I mean, why have great songs if they lack atmosphere? Take “My Epic Dragon” for instance, which absolutely takes that middle word and runs with it. The song has been around for an age, unrecorded, and had gone by the name “Maj-epic Dragon” as an in-joke, but the band opted to drop this before formally naming it. I personally think that it comes across like the soundtrack to an 80s video game (Space Harrier rings in my head for some reason), and it sounds like it may have Japanese or Chinese overtones in some of the guitars… but I’m informed by Tommy that this isn’t the case. It’s simply that they’ve been doing epic power metal for years and didn’t have a song about dragons yet!
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If there’s a breakneck song on Power Train then it’s “Thunder Power” which only takes a break to ensure that you’re clapping your hands over your heads. This is a definite, I’d hope, for a live show. Another less speedy number is “Victorious” which is as rousing as its name suggests it should be. Tommy’s vocals are all over the place (in a good way) on this one, really showing the range and power of those little folds in his throat.
It’s easy (for me) to focus on Tommy’s contribution as he’s the band member I know, but it would be unfair to forget that there are three other members in the band and this wonderful noise is made by all of them. Petter Hjerpe’s rhythm guitar is absolutely on point, and the rhythm section of Chris David and Joel Kollberg run at full tilt to keep everything hanging together. As mentioned earlier, backing vocals across the board are superb as well. This is truly a group effort.
For those more familiar with Tommy from his all-too-brief stint in Sabaton, Power Train may come as a bit of a surprise. It’s closer to the likes of Dragonforce than the battle metal horde. However it’s obviously where he’s happy, and this really comes across in every song. It’s hard to believe that so much music comes from the hands of only four people, and the ten songs do fly by. I’ve listened to very little of Majestica’s back catalogue up until now, but they’re not short on material to dig back through if Power Train worms its way into you brain. And it very likely will!
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Power Train is out on February 7th
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