BLACK MAJESTY: Sands of Time

Produced by Endel Rivers and Black Majesty

Released: 2003

This debut album by Black Majesty marked them as something very special in the power metal arena. From the three-track sampler I was priveleged enough to hear a year or so before the complete album was released I knew this would be good, but even that didn’t prepare me for the experience of hearing this in full.

Sands of Time is such a well-crafted blend of European style power metal and Queensrÿche-like progressive metal that it’s almost hard to believe. The cover art is a bit unfortunate, making it look like the dozens of second rate acts that litter the market, because this is one of the better albums of its kind you will hear. The promo disc’s stand out cut ‘Fall of the Reich’ opens proceedings at a power-metal flavoured faster pace; however, the balance of Sands of Time takes on a distinctly progressive feel and style, reflected in the complex arrangements of the songs and a truly outstanding vocal performance from John Cavaliere. Musically too, Black Majesty are far more than simply impressive, with a typically Australian ballsier edge than their European counterparts. The guitar solos in ‘Journey’s End’, for example, are simply breathtaking; indeed the work of Hanny Mohammed and Steve Janevski on this album is up there with any of the great metal guitar teams that you could mention.

Cavaliere is also helped out occasionally by Silvio Massaro of Vanishing Point and the towering range of Eyefear/ex-Pegazus vocalist Danny Cecati, and their contributions do nothing but further the already significant appeal of this recording. Sands of Time is a masterpiece.

1. Fall of the Reich
2. Legacy
3. Guardian
4. Sands of Time
5. Destination
6. Journey's End
7. Colliding Worlds
8. No Sanctuary
9. Beyond Reality
10. Lady of the Lake

Rating: 90%

BLACK MAJESTY: Tomorrowland

Released: 2007

Three albums into their career and Black Majesty seems to have hit a wall. Their first album was truly awesome and the second almost equally as good, both containing certain hallmarks that made Black Majesty stand out a little from other acts of their kind. With Tomorrowland however, they seem to be slipping towards a safe, generic direction.

The first track, "Forever Damned", has that oh-so-typical European power metal sound about it and the production of the album overall only emphasises this feeling. There's also an inherent sameness about a lot of the material that stops this well short of being the triumphs that its predecessors were. The presence of an underdone cover in the middle of the track listing further underlines the apparent dimming of Black Majesty's creative spark.

Tomorrowland's first few songs suffer from sounding rather too much like standard Euro-power metal, without very much to make them particularly memorable. They float around inside your head but even after a few spins nothing really stands out. Considering how catchy their previous material is, this is rather a let down. Halfway through is "Soldier of Fortune", an obscure Deep Purple track from the ill-favoured Stormbringer album that seems to be here simply because it is obscure.

The guitar work however, is nothing short of stellar, especially on the last half of the album. Steve Janevski and Hanny Mohammed really know their way around a fretboard and the soloing in cuts like "Faces of War" and "Another Dawn" would stop a clock. Indeed, Tomorrowland really picks up about halfway through. From this point on, Black Majesty shifts up a gear with a little more inspiration in the songs and Gio Cavallere testing out his range, most notably on the closing song "Scars". Overall, though, Tomorrowland is something of a disappointment compared to previous efforts and Black Majesty needs to address their approach lest they become just another faceless power metal band like so many others.

1. Forever Damned
2. Into the Black
3. Evil in Your Eyes
4. Tomorrowland
5. Soldier of Fortune
6. Bleeding World
7. Faces of War
8. Wings to Fly
9. Another Dawn
10. Scars

Rating: 64%