“Hellforces” is the fourth LP of MAJESTY, the mighty Teutonic MANOWAR worshipers. Just like on their previous albums, what they play is some kind of epic and straight-to-vein Power, pledging allegiance to the 80s and demonstrating that these Germans breathe Metal and live for speed.

Now, I don’t have a lot to write about this album. It is catchy, relatively varied, with decent vocals and a grand bombastic attitude, but at the same time it has a very weak composition. I don’t want to bash against it only because of its complete lack of originality, or its used and abused aesthetics, but besides that this is not only a copy, but a mediocre one.

The choruses seem like an uninspired DIO, the pose a less intelligent MANOWAR, and with the album structure MAJESTY try to build some milestone, mixing power tracks, epic ballads, cheap Glam and hymns emulating the eternal glory of Heavy Metal… and well, they fail. Vocals are NOT those of Eric Adams, songwriting is uninspired and you won’t hear a single riff or chorus that you hadn’t heard before under a much heavier version.

“Hellforces” is still a listenable album. It mixes strength and bombast, and gives a fair dose of old-school Power Metal, but unfortunately MAJESTY have real problems with creativity and they don’t seem to be about to fix them. (Online May 4, 2006)