Customer Reviews

Silent Company

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm a 52 year old musician (keys and guitars)I lived through the Beatles emerge on the scene, then Clapton (fastest guitarist) Hendrix (best) Deep Purple (spaciest) Emerson (Best keyboards)Rush (best drummer) Dream Theater (true Progress) and too many others to mention - WELL GET THIS - Black Majesty is the latest and the best of a long line of greatests - this CD is off the charts wonderful and I want to put it this way - I flew to England from California to see Porcupine Tree because I thought they may never travel to the USA (later they did) and I am now looking to find out where Black Majesty is going to play because THey are worth travelling anywhere in the world to see.
get it????? these guys are the state of the art best awesome beautiful majestic and I cant imagine what they can do next after this but I wait (-:
My favorites are Adagio - Andromeda - Angra - Ark - Ayreon - Balance of Power - Black Majesty - Bossio Levin Stevens - Braindance - Burning Point - Circus Maximus - Deep Purple - Divine Regale - Dream Theater - ELP - Explorers CLub - Ice Age - Kamelot - Liquid Tension - Magnitude Nine - Tony McAlpine - John McLaughlin - OSI - Pagan's Mind - Planet X - Porcupine Tree - Roya Hunt - Rush - Satriani - Shadow Gallery - Sonata Arcticaa - Steve Morse - Symphony X - Therion - Threshold - Vanden Plas (and in a place of its own beyond reach Pink Floyd)

I picked this up after hearing the excellent title track on the 'louder than the dragon 2' compilation and I must say the album is something of a disappointment. While musically the band is decent enough, the songs are not memorable and really don't do anything to distinguish themselves from the sea of current power metal offerings out there. LMP has a bad reputation for just churning out generic power metal albums, and 'silent company' seems to uphold that reputation. Again, it's not a bad album, but with almost 20 years of power metal under my belt, this album just isn't interesting

This is a really great CD - reminds me a little of Maiden and EdGuy...the lyrics and vocals are on par with both, something that can't be said about many other bands (this is a huge understatement). Currently this is my only Black Majesty CD so can't compare to their others but after this purchase I will start to collect them. Very powerful stuff, it will be interesting to see where these guys will go from here.

Okay imagine Iron Maiden with a frontman like Rob Halford of Judas Priest doing duty then take some of the riffs and speed them up some to almost DragonForce capacity and you kind of get the picture. The vocalist - he has some pipes. You remember the tune from Judas Priest " Victim of Changes"? Well Black Majesty's like that -- hard metal, melodic, searing lead guitars, kind of like the old days but more up-to-date. It's visceral stuff to crank up on the Bose system and get the neighbors up early to mow their front lawns Sunday mornings. Yeah.

Album #2 for Australian trad/power metal mot Black Majesty sees them solidifying their sound over the debuts somewhat beige metal compositions. The wattage here is mor confident and more assured in its forms with the vocals of John Cavaliere seeming to benefit especially from the better production job.

There are nine songs on the album (there is a limited edition floating around with more) of which eight are originals and one is a cover of a song by one-time Australian 'house wifes choice' Jon English which is sure to amuse Australian listeners. Perhaps the most salient tracks for the prospective buyer to sample would be the title track and opener Dragon Reborn, the title of which instantly reminded me of the Robert Jordan fantasy literature books though I'm uncertain if this is/was the inspiration.

A solid album in a genre that's overpopulated with quality which is a churlish complaint but it's true, this sort of Euro tinged style having a very high minimum standard which makes it hard for bands to truly stand out. Black Majesty have here produced a safe buy, less ornate than Kamelot, less hysterical vocally than Stratovarius and their ilk and very much rooted in 'human' time signatures as opposed to barraging the listener with 45 minutes of double time.

Bands who try to sell albums with marketing and hype have never been on my good side, no matter how good their material is. Black Majesty's second album, Silent Company, is a Power Metal album i would consider above average, period. Is it a must-have? Not to my knowledge, no.

I approached this record with strong skepticism and a noticeable desire to shoot another fish in the pond. The sound of the album, however, is weaved with skill and i was impressed by the result on my first listening. For an accurate comparison, it sounds a lot like late Gamma Ray with some Blind Guardian moody swings mixed in and some very rare progressive instrumentals. A bit too rare to influence the end result however, and this is the main problem with Silent Company. It is a good Power Metal album which tries to create its own mold, but somewhat fails gracefully.

All said, i still enjoyed Silent Company.