Even when a Metal genre becomes eroded by trends and by the excessive use, surprises can come in the ways the listeners and fans are not prepared to. MAJESTICA did it on "Above the Sky" (2019), but now, the quartet is back, giving to the fans a Christmas gift with "A Christmas Carol", their second full length.

It's a conceptual album based on Charles Dickens' novella "A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas" (that old Christmas tale centered on Ebenezer Scrooge's Christmas night). And here, the band uses a more Symphonic Power Metal approach (instead on solely Power Metal outfit of its previous album), enriched by operatic choirs and excellent keyboards parts. And it bears a Christmas ambience on the album's melodies. It's hooking, melodic and tender.

Jonas Kjellgren did the mixing and mastering, and the album sounds clean, with defined and clean instrumental tunes, allowing the band's musical expressions to be fully understood by the listeners. And it fits perfectly on what the album needed, indeed. And by the way, Anders Sköld (of VEONITY), Henrik Lindfors and Hanne Hermansson helped on lead vocals as well.

All the ambience of really "A Christmas Carol" caught the Christmas' spirit, and all the members did lead vocals on the album, not only Tommy. And the best ones for a first time on the album are "A Christmas Story" (excellent guitar riffs and keyboards parts, with many contrasts), "Ghost of Marley" (very good melodies, along with a strong and heavy work on bass guitars and drums), "The Joy of Christmas" (an introspective and deeply melodic song, with a tender ambience and excellent vocals), "Ghost of Christmas Present" (creative contrasts between choirs and vocals, and grandiosity is improved by the keyboards), and "A Christmas Has Come" (this one is filled by contrasts of ambiences created by the narrative of the concept, but again with excellent vocals and a happy ambience). To be honest, the ambience of the whole album brings to mind the film adaptation of the same story called "Scrooge" (of 1970).

In the end of all, the idea of this adaptation is really a great one. So praise MAJESTICA for being a refreshing wind into Power Metal, and hear "A Christmas Carol" during all the year.