I’m a big fan of Gloryhammer and of Angus McSix in general thanks to his appearances in tracks by bands like Nanowar of Steel. After a turbulent few years for the former band, however, Odin, Master of Ikea himself has gone out on his own and has put out his debut album today! If I haven’t sold you enough, the snippet I go through on the email with the album surely will:
‘After the heroic death of Prince Angus, hope seemed to be fading for Scotland and the whole galaxy. But our mighty hero has fought his way back into the world of the living’. Let’s do this!
‘Master of the Universe’ is the perfect opener to the album. Not only is it a fantastic, catchy power metal anthem, but it reintroduces Angus McSix and his new story and mythos. In fact, the whole album does, as it details the loss of his Gloryhammer and the introduction of his new sword, Sixcalibur. As I said, the opening track is a banger, too. From the opening vocal part to the HUGE riff to the massive, catchy chorus, it has a bit of everything you could want from a power metal track. The lyrics are really well written for the slightly cheesy, silly content and topic, too. It’s one of the easily playlisted tracks of the year so far!
Speaking of ‘Sixaclibur’, it’s the next track! The single is another strong track, filled with huge, catchy vocals, harmonies and riffs. I get that the sort of music is purposefully parodying the sub-genre, but it does it so well that it’s better than a lot of music in the genre today, in my opinion. It doesn’t exactly do anything unexpected or ground breaking, but everyone is insanely talented at their craft and the songwriting is amazing. Another one for the playlist!
As if it wasn’t silly enough, ‘Lazer-Shooting Dinosaur’ is up next. It opens on yet another infectiously catchy chorus and keeps the quick, silly energy up throughout. The synth/electronic parts were a nice touch. It’s another amazing track that is hard to pick fault with. I know a few will complain about the comical lyrical content, but music in general takes itself too seriously, especially power metal, so this is right up my street. So far, this album is off to an amazing start.
‘Amazons of Caledonia’ and ‘Ride to Hell’ are tracks similar to ‘…Dinosaur’. Honestly, so is ‘Starlord of the Sixtus Stellar System’. However, I loved the AC/DC references in the track, from the ‘Thunderstruck’-like riff to the ‘Whole Lotta Rosie’ inspired Angus chants. All three are fantastic tracks, but again nothing new.
After a brief intro track, ‘Eternal Warrior’ gets off to an epic start. The drums are a huge highlight of the track, fast and massively impressive. The track itself is similar to the others but I again liked the focus on synth, string and piano focuses and the epic intro was a nice touch!
‘The Key to Eternity’ is the closest thing to a power ballad on the album, and it’s awesome. The vocal melodies at times reminded me of some of Bruce Dickinson’s from the past decade. It’s a slower, epic track that tells a great tale and is a lot of fun.
The two closing tracks, ‘In a Past Reality’ and ‘Fireflies of Doom’, are both great tracks again. There’s a great riff that runs through the former, but honestly the latter is one of my favourite tracks on the album. Not only is it a great, catchy power metal track, but it is silly in the best ways. The lyrics are incredible. Playlisted!
There is another track on the album, a bonus one, ‘Just a Fool Will Play Tricks on Angus McSix’. It’s silly and funny but honestly has maybe the best chorus on the whole album. It could have easily been a full track on the album, but I’m glad it didn’t get cut completely!
Overall: This was fantastic. Honestly one of the best power metal albums I’ve listened to in a good while. Everyone played their parts perfectly and are insanely talented. And it was just the right balance of storytelling and not taking itself too seriously. My only slight issue is that they were all fairly similar; there could have been a slower track to break things up. However, it didn’t really make me feel the length, and when it’s all this good it’s hard to be mad at it being similar. I’ll be listening to this a lot in the coming months, I’m sure!
The Score: 9/10