Despite being only three in number, Majesties bring a superbly epic feel to their finely-crafted melodic death metal, On top of that, their grasp of what makes something epic doesn’t extend to weighing down in their songs with unnecessary ballast. Consequently with ten songs and none weighing in at over four and three quarter minutes in length, there’s a real sense of urgency about Vast Reaches Unclaimed.

That’s a good thing, because at times the band’s melodic sensibility doesn’t quite follow through on it’s apparent early promise; And whilst the mid-album trio of Verdant Paths To Radiance, Across The Neverwhen and Seekers of the Ineffable are all glorious slabs of steely American death – easily as good as you’ll hear anywhere else this year in this genre – at times as a listener elsewhere on the album you find the attention starting to wander slightly.

That’s only a small complaint however, and for the most part this is pretty exciting stuff. If you’re a regular over at the Sentinel Daily news section you’ll already be familiar with the track The World Unseen, and if you liked that then the likes of the brilliant Sidereal Spire, with it’s mix of black and death metal tropes and some pretty spritely drumming (from, I think, guitarist/vocalist Tanner Anderson, though I’m not sure as info accompanying my review copy of the album was sketchy) are not going to disappoint.

Anderson’s a capable death metal belter, vocally but he really serves the side best in his guitar partnership with Carl Skildum which is dynamic and superbly executed throughout. Bassist Matthew Kirkwold anchors everything solidly, and the result is an album that introduces the band to the awaiting death metal faithful in pretty convincing fashion overall. They aren’t quite moving any mountains yet, but there’s enough here to suggest that Majesties might be a very exciting proposition next time around.

Vast Reaches Unclaimed Releases On March 3rd.