Not a huge fan of power metal genre, I do make some exceptions for the likes of Evergrey or Helloween, so if a power metal album download catches my attention it’s a holiday. More often than not, the few sample songs turn out to be the highlights of an otherwise good but not great album. Such is the case with Dynazty’s 7th full length, "The Dark Delight", which razzles and dazzles with excellent guitarwork and few excellent songs, while the rest of the album is filled with excellent ideas which don’t transfer into great songs.

Dynazty is an old dog of power metal, having been founded in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, in 2007. They have released 6 full lengths before this one: "Bring The Thunder" (2009), "Knock You Down" (2011), "Sultans Of Sin" (2012), "Renatus" (2014), "Titanic Mass" (2016), "Firesign" (2018). "The Dark Delight" was recorded as Nils Johan Molin (vocals), Jenz Robert Love Magnusson (guitars, keyboards, backing vocals), Mikael Lavér (guitars, keyboards, backing vocals), Erik Nils Jonathan Olsson (bass, backing vocals backing) and Georg Adrian William Olof Härnsten Egg (drums, backing vocals).

As previously mentioned, Dynazty’s 7th album is full of excellent ideas. Take, for instance, the unique Scottish folklore melody in "The Man And The Elements" or the poppy, very catchy chorus of "Waterfall" (which ends with Megadeth-like "Prince Of Darkness" riffing), or even the country-like base of "The Road to Redemption". In all these cases the elements are what make the song interesting while the song is rather uninteresting outside of them. Then there are very good songs, such as "Presence Of Mind, Paradise Of The Architect", "The Black", "From Sound to Silence", songs with great verses, choruses and excellent solos, somewhere between Evergrey and Dream Theater, latter In Flames and Scar Symmetry. These songs are actually the first four to open the album, giving one an illusion of a consistently great effort, and the Dream Theater-ic excellent ballad "Hologram", which follows them, only serves to reinforce the feeling.

It is from song 6, almost halfway the album that the songs begin to lose their quality, whereby only the aforementioned bits and pieces catch attention in an otherwise generic and blunt content. It’s not even that these songs are horrible but they just don’t hit me the same way until track no. 10, an excellent Helloween-ish Rage-sque almost thrasher, "Apex", and then the closing title track is another very good one, even if its excellent chorus is a little subdued by excessive fronting of a bass only verse. Thus the album at least starts and ends on a very good note.

In the end, I don’t find this an essential album even if I appreciate the guitarwork and various ideas, and you might find different tracks more worthy of your attention than I did. You might even score it higher, especially if you like this kind of, at times very poppy heavy/power metal. But, whether you are a power metal afficionado or not, I think you’ll agree that the disc is uneven and not all tracks are up to par and hence my verdict.

http://www.dynazty.com/