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Thy Majestie have been a second-rate band for so long that I had stopped paying attention to them. They made a big splash a decade ago with Hastings 1066, but they always had one big, glaring weakness in that they had crap singers. Their music was a cut above the standard Italometal of the day, but their vocalist sucked, and then the one who replaced him sucked, and so on. I gave them a spin when Jeanne d'Arc came out, but again with the crappy vocals, so I ignored subsequent albums.

Now they are back with ShiHuangDi - which if you didn't know is the name of the semi-legendary first emperor of China - and two facts are abundantly clear: One, the band has ditched their old Rhapsody imitation in favor of solid Power Metal songwriting, and Two, they finally have a class vocalist in Crimson Wind wailer Alessio Taormina. That's all it took to make them into an A Grade band. ShiHuangDi is a tremendous album, bursting with epic orchestrations, strong guitar work, and addictive vocal hooks. This reminds me strongly of Serenity's Death & Legacy, only without Serenity's faint prog stylings. Despite the lameness of his other band, Taormina delivers a standout performance, showing what he can do when he has good material to work with. One real strength he has is that he's not a showoff, and is content to just sing, without the swoops and wails that lesser vocalists use to call attention to themselves. Overall, this is just a stellar album of pure Power Metal without pretensions or trying to be anything else. So far, I'd call this the PM album to beat for the year.