The arrival of a new Dynazty album is always a matter for celebration at Strickmann Towers. For sheer joie-de-vivre-inducing, anthemic gloriousness there’s simply not a band on the planet who can touch Nils Molin and company currently – of that I am absolutely sure.
And yet, after a couple of listens to their new album, Game of Faces, which sees the band moving to the behemothic Nuclear Blast label after a fruitful sojourn at AFM, I must admit to feeling a little let down. Maybe it was the post-Christmas comedown that framed my listening sessions, maybe – and this was unthinkable to me – the album just wasn’t up to par, falling short of the Everest-high bar set by it’s predecessor, 2022’s Final Advent, which you’ll remember was Sentinel Daily‘s album of the year for that particular trip around the sun…
Thankfully, I stuck with the album, giving it time to seep into my marrow, with the result being, I’m pleased to report, this fact: DYNAZTY HAVE DELIVERED ANOTHER CORKER.
Honestly, I don’t know what I can have been thinking, because, once again, Game Of Faces presents an all-killer, no filler cavalcade of melodic metal jollies. Molin, of course, is at the centre of it all, that titanic voice rising majestically above the maelstrom of riffs, solos and keyboard trills and parps supplied by his bandmates. The martial stomp of Die To Survive shows him off in maximum effect, but quite honestly the man doesn’t put a tonsil wrong across the whole album.
Fire to Fight is utterly triumphant, built on a fluttering synth line that reminds me of Eiffel 65‘s Blue which underpins some Turbo-era Judas Priest guitar tones and a Malmsteenesque solo for which the phrase ‘off the chain’ may well have been invented; This is kitchen sink metal at it’s finest, but it’s not even anywhere the best track on the record, and it’s probably at this point that you simply give up trying to analyse what it is that makes you love the band so much and simply give yourself over to enjoying what is set before you.
Did I mention the album’s best track? Well, today that would have to be the utterly titanic Dark Angel, a phantsmagorical, classically-tinged four and a half minute romp through the power metal playbook, but tomorrow it might be the pulsing synth metal of Fortune Favors The Brave or the strident title track. Game of Faces is that type of record; always there, and always ready to provide the perfect metallic soundtrack to whatever your mood might be.
Last time out I mentioned that, although Final Advent was Dynazty’s best album yet, the game for this band is not competition but progression and the refinement of the ideal that inspired them to start the band in the first place; And, again on Game of Faces, they’ve progressed their brand once more, to the point where there really is no opposition or competition in their chosen field. I don’t often say this, but, within the context of the musical landscape they’ve created, Dynazty have created a perfect record in the shape of Game of Faces. Bravo!
Game of Faces releases on February 14th.
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