Dynazty – The Dark Delight

Dynazty are still as heavy as horses, each album since 2014’s ‘Renatus’ standing as a testament to Swedish melodic metal.

Written by: gdmonline

ARTIST: Dynazty
ALBUM: The Dark Delight
LABEL: AFM Records
SERIAL: AFM 742-9
YEAR: 2020

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:

LINEUP: Nils Molin – vocals * Rob Love Magnusson – guitars, keyboards, backing vocals * Mikael Laver – guitars * Jonathan Olsson – bass, backing vocals * George Egg – drums, backing vocals

TRACK LISTING: 01 Presence Of Mind * 02 Paradise Of The Architect * 03 The Black * 04 From Sound To Silence * 05 Hologram * 06 Heartless Madness * 07 Waterfall * 08 Threading The Needle * 09 The Man And The Elements * 10 Apex * 11 The Road To Redemption * 12 The Dark Delight

RATING:

WEBLINKS: Site Link

Background

Back for another round of melodic metal are perennial Swedish band Dynazty. When naming this album were they talking about coffee, chocolate or maybe a late night alcoholic treat like cognac or kahlua? Yum all around, so too the music, which we’ve been writing about this lot for well on a decade now.

Still as heavy as horses, each album since 2014’s ‘Renatus’ standing as a testament to Swedish melodic metal. They are a bunch of professional musicians who know how to deliver classy knock your socks off metal. ‘The Dark Delight’ is a new edition to the book written by Dynazty. It’s not as heavy as recent albums. There is a bit of a mix up in styles which provides a contrast. Let’s get into it.

The Songs

The kick-off track ‘Presence Of Mind’ is an instant reminder of that fantastic 1994 debut Aces High album ‘Ten N Out’, especially the track ‘Do You Need’, all thanks to that familiar drum pattern. The double bass kick drums are at the forefront of ‘Paradise Of The Architect’, it’s an intense affair with smack down drum work, hard driving synths and relentless guitars. In essence: Dynazty 101.

‘The Black’ settles things down a touch, and features parts which I’m certain I’ve heard elsewhere, especially that chorus. It’ll come to me. ‘From Sound To Silence’ with its sci-fi introduction adds another dimension to the Dynazty arsenal. The drum work is trip-tonic much like how Amaranthe design their songs. That’s no surprise considering Molin also sings full-time with that band. Notice the growling vocals mid section too?

‘Hologram’ throws out some shade and reminds me of last years excellent JD Miller album, a set which included loads of symphonic moments. Maybe a touch commercial (or poppy even), ‘Heartless Madness’ continues with some sweet keyboards added to proceedings which brightens things immeasurably. Not quite the heavy fare we are used to from these guys.

‘Waterfall’ though a touch heavier also has a very sweet singalong chorus which smells ‘anthem’. This sounds like it could sit quite nicely on an Amaranthe album, albeit with a slight shift in the arrangement. ‘Threading The Needle’ takes a different route than usual. Its staccato arrangement stutters and staggers across both the verses and choruses. Despite this approach, the track still works OK.

The riff on ‘The Man And The Elements’ has a Celtic feel to it, but it’s overpowered by the rest of the song, which sees Molin seemingly over singing his part.. ‘Apex’ contains modern elements including those racy synths which propels this track along at good clip. Not to forget yet again – the cookie monster vocals to be found within. Umm yeah.

‘The Road To Redemption’ with its poignant acoustic strum-along soon turns into a power packed chorus, but the verses tone it down in-between times. ‘The Dark Delight’ the title track is left till last. It’s a mystical beast, with references to fantastical creatures, so much so that this could be a Magnum track from an earlier era.

In Summary

There’s a bit of variety on this album. Each track contains its own identity which demonstrates that Dynazty have learned a lot over the course of several albums. The mix up-variety of the twelve tracks also makes this an interesting listen, and from that angle this had an audible shelf life which lasted right through to the end.

Dynazty fans should be pleased that this set retains the band’s high standards, and we’ll all be listening to this for weeks to come. What else is there to do in a worldwide lockdown situation?

Video

Presence of Mind

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