Black Majesty
Cross of Thorns

This could work… as a torture device – that is what good old Robert wrote in a review for Hallowed far back in time when he reviewed the band’s debut album Sands of Time at the time when Hallowed was a printed magazine. Now plenty of time has passed since that review, and this is their sixth album. I have never heard this band that are described as the best power metal band from Australia, so this gives me to claims to verify or deny. One might say that this album does give me the opportunity to learn whether or not to check out Australian power metal any time soon. So how about it, the cover looks like a typical power metal album but what about the music, brilliant or torture device?

Well, let us start with the stylistic appearance – it is power metal, pretty much of the European school. Had I not know that these guys were from Australia I wouldn’t have guessed that they were from anywhere but Europe as it sounds like power metal from Europe does, maybe thanks to the mixing and mastering by Roland Grapow of Helloween fame. The vocals was the torture device for Robert back then, I think for this album it is a bit harsh to describe it like that – the vocals may not be fantastic but it isn’t torture to listen to them. The sound is fairly average for the genre and the songs on the album are just about what you can expect on your every day power metal album. And it plays for 48 minutes, 48 minutes where there are no real surprises – unless of course you consider a cover of Gary More’s Out in the Fields a surprise, but as a cover song it has been done many times so it isn’t really that surprising to be honest.

No surprises from the album, that tends to be something of a weakness for most albums as you always want to see something fresh and interesting if you are a critic. They are pretty good at what they do, their songs are well composed and well performed varied enough and keeps you relatively entertained. At the same time I wouldn’t say that it is an album that makes you stop and take notice, although the inclusion of Out in the Fields is certainly something that has you take notice. Overall I like this album even though I will most likely forget most of it when I put it away now after I have written this review, the scene for power metal is quite saturated and these guys don’t really offer anything we haven’t heard before. Though I have to say that they are probably good enough to entertain most of the fans of the genre.

The best track is the cover track, Out in the Fields is just a brilliant track and it doesn’t seem to matter who plays it as it is always great. Shame for these guys though that none of their songs are even close to that track, the cover is a great choice to increase interest and make a listener pay attention – unfortunately they don’t quite deliver the same quality music. They are good but so are hundreds of other bands out there. And I don’t think I need to check out Australian power metal because if this is the best they can offer they cannot rival Europe, good things is though that it wasn’t a torture device as I get enough of those anyway.

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