Album Review: Dynazty - The Dark Delight

There are two ways to think about the term 'pop metal'. There is the version of it where bands are essentially taking pop music and injecting metal elements to try to earn themselves some credibility. We can think of Poppy in this area, who this year put out an album that is essentially a pop record with a bunch of guitars on it. Thankfully, not all of that kind of music is as bad as hers. The other version of pop metal is when metal bands try to inject pop catchiness into their vocal hooks. That style has become increasingly popular, with Amaranthe finding huge success doing it, and Within Temptation and Delain recently tryig to jump on the bandwagon. Dynazty is along for the ride as well, but they were one of the early riders. They have been making sticky, heavy, pop-tastic power metal for a while now.

The earliest I can recall this particular sound was on Bloodbound's "Tabula Rasa", which holds up to this day as the cutting edge of what modern power metal can do in merging mechanically heavy music and soaring hooks. I have been waiting and waiting for more records to approach that angle, and that quality, but so far there have been very few contenders for that crown (James LaBrie's "Impermanent Resonance" being the strongest). Dynazty has the right elements to do it, but so far they just haven't connected with me, and I can't quite put my finger on why.

This record gets off to a great start, with "Presence Of Mind" giving us a bouncing hook, heavy guitars, and some hints of organ in the background, all of which adds up to a track that does everything this style of metal is supposed to. It makes no apologies for being metal through-and-through, but has crossover appeal in the melodies. That's perfect, if you ask me.

"The Black" shows how Dynazty fuses pop and metal, which a chugging rhythm leading into a high-register chorus that plays off the stabbing guitar chords, all capped off with a metallic scream. But unlike some artists who can't figure out how to bring these elements together in a cohesive way *cough*Devin Townsend*cough*, Dynazty's sound is seamless. This is metal that is naturally infectious, not something cobbled together from the lost-and-found bin in someone's studio. There's a big difference between the two, trust me.

My favorite track might just be "Hologram", which is a quasi-ballad that uses the extra space in the mix to build drama. There's some ebb and flow to the track that the heavier numbers aren't capable of, which I think not only helps with the album's pacing, but also gives the band a chance to let their songwriting breathe a bit more. Songs like "Waterfall" are great, but an entire album of everything being at full-blast without pause would be too much. Dynazty throwing some dynamics into the mix is quite helpful for me.

There are great songs on this album, and there are also some that don't quite hit the mark. "The Man And The Elements" sounds like everything else, but the melody isn't as captivating as some of the others. And as the album progresses, the instrumental breaks seem to get longer, when I feel like this kind of metal needs to be rather concise to be its most effective. There's a bit of a lull two-thirds of the way through where the momentum started to stall out.

Overall, "The Dark Delight" is a very good example of the proper kind of pop metal. It isn't perfect, but the majority of the record is the blend of heavy and catchy we don't get nearly enough of. Dynazty still hasn't made that career-defining record I've been waiting for, but they do keep making records that are plenty of fun to listen to.