Dynazty – The Dark Delight (AFM Records)
Thursday, 9th April 2020
A byproduct of writing for so many years about metal is the relationships you build with certain artists and their discography. Aware of Sweden’s Dynazty right away from their more sleaze/Sunset Strip metal sound on through to their melodic, modern power metal leanings – it’s evident they’ve capably grown into their own sound, not chasing anything in particular to go where the muse flows. The Dark Delight is the band’s seventh studio record, another self-produced outing with wise professional mixing from Jacob Hansen that illustrates a confidence to fly in any direction they feel necessary while still maintaining a red line standard of Dynazty performances and songwriting quality.
If you want the heavy, straightforward melodic metal featuring a mixture of power riffs and incredible, arena-level vocal harmonies, look no further than “The Black” or “Apex” for songs that will go down a storm if you love Kamelot or Evergrey, the keyboard and guitar movements registering well for some neoclassical/symphonic textures. On the other side, there’s a deeper diversity than ever before when you delve into cuts like “From Sound to Silence” and “The Road to Redemption” – exploring more of the cyber/electric meets extreme syncopation grooves for the former, while traversing into some cultural/Scandinavian musical epic parts with acoustic guitar movements during the latter to create this outside, peak into the past atmosphere. It’s hard not to get fully engaged in the strong groove/melody combinations for the opener “Presence of Mind” – the tempo shuffle, the pulsating keyboards, the crunchy back and forth guitar aspects open an addictive, building verse to chorus presentation for singer Nils Molin to shine, a personal power type topic of individual strength and overcoming adversity very moving for today’s tumultuous times. Nils as a vocalist continues to be excelling at his craft – his matching of emotions and energy key to the memorable nature of “Heartless Madness” and the Celtic-textures for “The Man and the Elements”, again conveying a mix of Mike Reno (Loverboy) and Russell Allen (Symphony X).
Capturing the best sounding Dynazty to date in the studio, The Dark Delight showcases a metal band that dips its collective toes wherever their ideas take them, while still being melodic, modern, and powerful. In an ideal industry, this would be the record to vault the band up the ranks into solid headlining status at a theater level globally.
