MAJESTY – Hellforces

Manowar has always been about ignoring trends and being “true” to Metal, critics be damned. This approach has earned the self-proclaimed “Kings Of Metal” legions of extremely loyal fans around the world, and nearly as many detractors (a.k.a. “wimps and posers”), who decry Manowar for being too cheesy.

With Hellforces, Germany’s Majesty tries to keep the flag of True Metal flying high and proud. Majesty has a lot in common with Manowar, as anyone who has heard any of their three previous albums can attest — lots of songs about battalions of steel, the glory of dying in battle, being true to your fellow warriors, slaying adversaries with hammers in the wind, and so on. For these guys, Metal isn’t just a form of music, it’s a lifestyle choice. If you’re not into Metal, you’re no friend of Majesty’s.

Hellforces is twelve tracks of “true” Heavy Metal, with lots of big pounding riffs, headbanger solos, songs with titles like “Heavy Metal Desire,” anthemic “shout it out loud with your fists in the air” choruses, and lots of easy-to-remember lyrics about the greatness of Metal, noble warriors marching to glory, fighting for what you believe in, never giving up, and never letting your Metal brothers down. Majesty is not just a Metal band; if you believe Hellforces‘ ominous spoken-word intro, they have come from Hell to save humanity with Heavy Metal! Or kill everyone with it. Or something.

So Majesty’s not a subtle band, in case you haven’t noticed. That doesn’t mean they’re not good at what they do, though. Hellforces is silly and cheesy and bombastic, but it works hard to win you over with its enthusiasm, energy, and unpretentious attitude. Majesty really believes in what they do, and it shows on Hellforces. Hellforces is also a more consistent (and better) album than the last Majesty studio disc, Reign In Glory, with no lulls, a bit of experimentation with pretty female vocals, and better lyrics. Not drastically better lyrics though; this is still Majesty, after all.

Majesty has been accused in the past of welding the sounds of other bands into their marching steel machine. Hellforces won’t do much to silence the critics … while there are no outright ripoffs here, listeners will detect some pretty obvious outside influences within some of the songs. Intro “The Blessing” reeks of Medieval Steel, and “Dance With The Demon” has a very serious Manowar “Warriors Of the World United” vibe. It’s a cool stomper though, and will probably send the live crowds into a headbanging frenzy. Echoes of Hammerfall can be heard in other songs, and “Like A Raptor” sounds like old Accept.

Speaking of old Accept, Stefan Kaufmann produced Hellforces and Udo Dirkschneider guests on “Metal Law 2006,” showing the youngsters how it’s done.

Some filler aside, Hellforces is an unoriginal, but solid, crowd-pleasing Heavy Metal disc from the steel warriors of Majesty, created with molten metal from the fiery forges of Hell. Keep it true!