If you just Rip Van Winkled the past 35 or so years, I’ve got good news and bad news. The bad news is that the oceans are about to boil over and we’ll all be dead in a decade, but the good news is that Ronnie Atkins and Ken Hammer are still at the helm of Pretty Maids’ sturdy power-metal longship, and they still basically sound like they did on 1984’s landmark Red Hot And Heavy album, which is to say sorta glammy but heavy as fuck in the right places. So, even-stevens, really.
Kingmaker is the Danish metal institution’s 15th album and it’s a real bolt of lightning, regal in stride and majestic in scope, anchored by Atkins’ still-agile yelping and the crunch of Hammer’s relentless riffola.
This band are at their best when they twist all of the knobs to the right, and that’s just where they keep it here.
