ALBUM REVIEW: Dynazty – Firesign

Back in 2009 when Dynazty released their first album ‘Bring the Thunder’ and followed it up two years later with ‘Knock You Down’ you could have been forgiven for thinking that they were a band that revered the magical 80’s renaissance of hard rock above all else. Now that may have been true at the time and those two albums as well as 2012’s ‘Sultans of Sin’ are great additions to any collection but by 4th album ‘Renatus’ (which means ‘rebirth’ in Latin) in 2014 things had started to change, and interestingly this coincided with Dynazty starting to produce themselves. Three self-produced albums later ‘Firesign’ could just be their crowning glory but to misquote the Wizard of Oz “We aren’t in the 80’s anymore”…

‘The Grey’ that follows is lighter but with an even grander construction, and is driven towards a huge melodic chorus and memorable progressive-tinged refrain. For me at least it gets even better with the wonderfully heavy and uplifting ‘In the Arms of a Devil’ which could well be the perfect distillation of what the band does so well – produce highly-polished, modern melodic hard rock with a definite metal-edge that at times has you catching that Nightwish-like thrust. (Editors note: Mark caught up with Nils Molin last week and that sound was one of the things discussed – interview up soon)

And the truth is the deeper you get here the more you feel that Dynazty have found their ‘sound.’ This album takes them to a special place that isn’t quite modern melodic rock but has all kind of elements at play without any of them becoming overbearing or commonplace.  Just to prove the point  ‘My Darkest Hour’ slows the pace a little and take away the searing guitar solo and the rock vocal and it might be called a ‘pop song’ its certainly constructed in that particular way. Right up against it you have ‘Aversion’ which is almost the antithesis – at one moment Folky and free and at others dark and brooding and very lavishly orchestrated. Both are great songs and that’s largely the point here – you’ve got a band with such richness in their sound that you really feel they can turn their hands to anything and still sound like themselves.

‘Firesign’ the title track flicks you back immediately to modern day with synths that might be a step to far for traditionalists but it shows that they can do radio-friendly Euro Rock/Pop and roll out a huge chorus that both rockers and fans of the likes of Pink might enjoy equally.

And it’s in those first six songs that you really have the choice cuts here. It’s not that the second half of the album loses anything it’s just that you find yourself wishing they’d push even more rather than merely consolidate, though I suspect that is exactly what most fans might want from the band.

Deeper in ‘Closing Doors’ flies out of the traps riding sweet uplifting melodies before ‘Follow Me’ rides an even deeper groove and is driven higher still by an insistent guitar line and a vocal that just sweeps you up and along for the ride. Then there’s ‘Let Me Dream Forever’ which is perhaps the only song here that didn’t connect with me, taking the pace off a little but seemingly not really knowing what it wants to be. ‘Starfall’ is a decent song too but seems to be treading old ground, though it does ride a wonderful riff. In an album of great songs I do need to stress that these are both only minor disappointments. All that is quickly forgotten anyway when closer ‘The Light Inside the Tunnel’ kicks in a cool uplifting melodic rockers that seems to shout that there is so much more to come.