Dynazty - The Dark Delight (AFM)

Is there anyone in the world of modern metal that sounds as awe-inspiringly massive as Dynazty?

Literally everything they do sounds as if it has been hewn from sheer faces of metallic might – even the ballads. Everything – every fiercely constructed drum pattern, every ear-jerking chorus, every last jagged riff and crystal clear solo – is wrought to the point of sensory overload. You either love it or you hate it, but I’m bound to predict that far more people are going to put themselves on the ‘love’ side of the ledger after coming into contact with The Dark Delight.

Third track The Black is a case in point; a pant-splittingly fabulous microcosm of everything that makes this band such a delight. Titanic vocals from Nils Molin (surely the best of the modern bunch of metal throatsmith?), off the scale soloing from Rob Love Magnusson and Mike Lavér, choruses that live on in the mind for days – it’s all here.

And not just on that one track, either. The Dark Delight is a veritable metalheads’ smorgasbord, with every Euro metal taste catered for and then catered for again… From Sound To Silence throws in chunky staccato riffage and death metal roars, then next track Hologram plunges straight for the heart with a superb synthesis of Kansas, Roxette and Europe designed to set arenas alight wherever it’s heard over the coming year, if we’re ever allowed to gather in concert spaces again. It’s totally euphoric stuff, let me tell you, and even though you’d think the band leave themselves no room for manoeuvre when everything is welded to eleven at all times, their sheer skill and instrumental agility means that they keep pushing the pleasure needles further and further into the red with each track.

Heartless Madness rests the perky folk-inspired pop metal crown right off Floor Jansen’s lovely head, and gets the job done in a tick less than four minutes. That’s another key point here – these boys don’t waste a single note. Everything is streamlined to achieve key performance, and no song drags or gets anywhere near outstaying it’s welcome. For a band as recklessly opulent and extravagant as Dynazty, there is not one iota of self-indulgence to be found here. Everything is recorded with impact on the listener as the main priority – which makes The Dark Delight almost faultless in my book.