It may sound like an old Axel Rudi Pell off cut, but when your ears are assuaged by the balladic Got A Hold On You- the ninth rack on the new album from Aussie power metal stalwarts Black Majesty, Oceans of Black – it comes like manna from the Gods for your battle scarred ears…

The reason for this is that the band spend the first eight tracks with their feet glued on the accelerator pedal, providing song after song of heads-down, no-holds-barred mayhem that rarely, if ever, come up for air. Now, as many of you will know I’m a seasoned power metal aficionado, but even I felt a bit battered and bruised before Got A Hold On You came to save the day. I know this is kinda the band’s calling card, forged over a quarter a century of sterling good work, but there’s just not enough nuance or variation going on on tracks like the title track or Only The Devil to warrant repeat visits. It’s superbly produced and brilliantly played, natch – especially the incendiary soloing and relentless kick drum work – but it just doesn’t quite scratch the Templeton itch, as it were.

Of course, this is just my opinion, and I’m fully aware that many of you will be salivating at the thought of track upon track of Black Majesty at full throttle. And I have to admit that the album’s three non-balladic standout tracks, Raven, Hell Racer and the utterly excellent Here We Go, have gone straight to the top of my Black Majesty ‘best-of’ playlist.

At the end of the day, this is a band that owes us nothing after a long and highly decorated career, and it really matters not one jot what people like me think, one way or the other. They are an Australian metal institution, nothing more nothing less, and the best moments on this album remind us just why.

Oceans of Black releases on June 20th.