“Dawn”, released in September 2008, is the fourth release from Italian power metal outfit Thy Majestie,. With several lineup changes for the band, it has been three years since the release of their last album, “Jeanne D'Arc”. With “Dawn”, Thy Majestie breaks away from the concept album approach they have followed on their previous albums.

The album artwork is appealing in color and style. The booklet contains nice, clear photos of the band with a different member in the forefront of each photo. The lyrics are printed in a very readable style and color, as opposed to those in the “Hastings 1066” cd booklet.

The tracks on Dawn are organized into three "chapters". Chapter One begins with “As You Fall” and displays some nice vocal and instrumental harmonies. “MAD” is next, a powerful song with a melodic chorus and a driving beat. It ends with some cool guitar riffs followed by piano that fades into the distance. Oddly, the title track of this album is an instrumental. It's a short song with a good melody line.

“The Legacy Suite” is a grouping of songs within Chapter Two, my favorite set on the album. There are five tracks total with two songs interspersed between short instrumental tracks. The grouping starts out with some interesting piano work, then keyboards with some choral vocals that segue into “To An Endless Devotion”, a fast, catchy song reminiscent of the “Jeanne D'Arc”/”Hastings 1066” style. This is followed by a short instrumental track with some nice solo guitar. “Two Minutes Hate” is a strong, powerful and melodic song with lyrics that speak of battle and victory, familiar lyrical territory for the band.

In Chapter Three, you'll find a fast-paced track with some catchy hooks that keep the song interesting in “Day Of The Changes”. Closing track, “Through Heat and Fire”, uses digital vocal effects on the choruses. I find this to be distracting to the song and out of character for this genre of music. Otherwise, “Through Heat and Fire” is descent.

With both a new vocalist, Dario Cascio, and a new guitarist, Simone Campione, a fan of prior releases hopes that the style and sound of the new album will not have changed drastically from the old symphonic sound. In my opinion, “Dawn” does have a significantly different sound. It lacks choral vocals, symphonic elements and interludes that were prevalent in previous albums and the arrangements and lyrics are much less complex.

While the new singer has better pronunciation of English, I must say that I enjoyed the Italian accent of the previous vocalists in some ways. The songs on “Dawn” do not seem to have the emotion behind them that some did from prior albums. Maybe it was being caught up in the story that the songs were telling, but you could really feel something from tracks like “Anger of Fate”, “Time to Die” and “The Scream of Taillefer”.

This new sound for Thy Majestie may appeal to a broader range of listeners, but I would like to see more of the old sound return on their next release.

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