photos by Sarah Kirkwold
Melodic US death metal trio MAJESTIES today issues “Our Gracious Captors,” the third single from the band’s debut LP, Vast Reaches Unclaimed, nearing March release through 20 Buck Spin.
MAJESTIES unites guitarist/vocalist/drummer Tanner Anderson, guitarist Carl Skildum, and bassist Matthew Kirkwold. The sound on Vast Reaches Unclaimed will be another striking addition to their respective oeuvres, recalling the glorious days of Wrong Again and No Fashion Records. Evoking a time when Gothenburg was starting to unseat Stockholm as the unimpeachable city for Swedish death metal in the mind of the international metal scene, MAJESTIES bears that intrinsic sense of rabid intensity and the effortlessly satisfying melodic ability that made albums like In Flames’ The Jester Race and the like instant classics. The mix of major key melodies and twin guitar harmonies snaking through every track ornament the vigorous riff eruptions and anguished vocals in a sheen of gleaming brilliance that proves an exhilarating triumph to behold.
Without a hint of the corruption the style experienced in a post-Slaughter Of The Soul world, Vast Reaches Unclaimed exists as a fervent reminder of what was and what again shall be. MAJESTIES reanimates the corpse of the true melodic style that both divided and invigorated the death metal scene of the mid-1990s and brings it into 2023 like it never left, sounding as novel and thrilling as ever.
Vast Reaches Unclaimed was engineered by the band, mixed and mastered by Adam Tucker at Signaturetone Recording (Ulthar, Thou, Obsequiae), and completed with photography by Sarah Kirkwold, artwork by Juanjo Castellano (Gates Of Ishtar, Varathron, The Black Dahlia Murder), logo by Dan Capp, and layout by Chimere Noire. Fans of In Flames, Eucharist, Dark Tranquillity, A Canorous Quintet, Gates Of Ishtar, Iron Maiden, Ceremonial Oath, and clearly Obsequiae and Inexorum, should not miss MAJESTIES’ debut.
Skildum writes, “‘Our Gracious Captors’ imagines the feeling of waking up trapped in a maze of mirrors with no obvious way out, and few clues as to who the architects are. At some point a choice presents itself – to continue to play the game or to escape the simulation by shattering the mirrors. What form of reality awaits beyond this construct?”
Listen to MAJESTIES’ “Our Gracious Captors” now at YouTube HERE and Bandcamp HERE.
Vast Reaches Unclaimed will be released March 3rd on LP, CD, CS, and digital formats. Find preorders at the 20 Buck Spin webshop HERE and Bandcamp where “The World Unseen” and “In Yearning, Alive” are streaming HERE.
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