Band:	Gloryhammer
Album:	Return To The Kingdom Of Fife
Style:	Power metal
Release date:	June 2023

01. Incoming Transmission
02. Holy Flaming Hammer Of Unholy Cosmic Frost
03. Imperium Dundaxia
04. Wasteland Warrior Hoots Patrol
05. Brothers Of Crail
06. Fife Eternal
07. Sword Lord Of The Goblin Horde
08. Vorpal Laserblaster Of Pittenweem
09. Keeper Of The Celestial Flame Of Abernethy
10. Maleficus Geminus (Colossus Matrix 38B - Ultimate Invocation Of The Binary Thaumaturge)

Angus McBillion has packed up his unicorns in his old kit bag and is smiling, smiling, smiling through gritted teeth. But how are things down at the farm?

Well, in most ways, they’re carrying on like usual. From the very first minutes of the album, a symphonic overture dubbed “Incoming Transmission,” the keys of Gloryhammer’s writing can be discerned (and it’s keys, mostly). “Holy Flaming Hammer Of Unholy Cosmic Frost” is as triumphant and unintelligible an opening salvo as Gloryhammer has yet unshackled, and every bit of the song, from the expectorant narration of Zargothrax to the overdriven tempo to the quoting of “Rise Of The Chaos Wizards,” is written carefully to establish continuity with past adventures while formally introducing the world to the Mark II lineup (last year’s “Fly Away” single notwithstanding). Ostentatious fanfare buttresses every turn of phrase: Angus McFife II is on his throne and all is glorious with the hammer.

Mostly. A certain degree of musical comparison to Angus McTrillion is entirely warranted, and while Gloryhammer seems quite comfortable stoking its own forward momentum in comparison to Bangus McMangus binding himself inextricably (by his own volition) to the legend of the opening trilogy, the shift from Angus McFife to Angus McFife does also change the personality of Gloryhammer itself. Sozos Michael’s voice is honeyed and weightless, reminiscent of Tony Kakko, Fellowship’s Matthew Corry, or Cellador’s Chris Petersen; his feathery highs caress the ears with a smoothness somewhat at loggerheads with the oeuvre of Gloryhammer. He is at the top, but not over the top, and that’s something that the band needs to succeed; Thomas Winkler was goofball ridiculous cheese, from his nonspecific European accent to the wild rasp that crept into his most emphatic exclamations, and the unnecessarily enthusiastic thrust of his heroic shouts was just the sort of inanity you want piloting songs like “The Epic Rage Of Furious Thunder” and “Victorious Eagle Warfare.” Michael is a competent power metal vocalist, but I don’t entirely connect his approach to the aggressively inane Gloryhammer I am familiar with; he attempts a ruffian snarl for the speedy biker bits of “Wasteland Warrior Hoots Patrol,” and while his Chris Boltendahl impression is not too far off the mark, it does (glory)hammer home that I’d much rather hear him fronting a band like HammerFall or Freedom Call. This may take some adjustment of expectations over time.

The vocals being neither as flamboyant nor as dominant in the mix as usual, Return To The Kingdom Of Fife leaves a less voluminous footprint than its predecessors. The keyboard orchestrations grow increasingly ornate to compensate – there are lots more weird alien synths, brass effects, prog keys, and plain old piano, leaving us with a more symphony-oriented album than the previous three. Funnily enough, you can also hear Sabaton Sabadu creeping into the songwriting tendencies: the simplistic battering-ram riffs and interjectory vocal patterns in the chorus of “Wasteland Warrior Hoots Patrol” are a meat-and-potatoes metal-that-also-believes-in-keyboards, “Keeper Of The Celestial Flame Of Abernathy” packs the same chord progressions, bridges, and key stings as many a post-Carolus Rex single, and “Sword Lord Of The Goblin Horde” bites that instantly recognizable martial stomp. Now, this could be entirely coincidence or projection on my part, because what I’ve discerned in the course of writing this review is that Christopher Bowes is no longer in Gloryhammer – at least, not substantially – so his other side projects may have nothing to do with this recent Swede infection. Keyboards on this album were performed by Michael Barber, who has been the band’s live keyboardist/Zargothrax since Terrorvortex’s touring cycle, and Bowes’s only visible contribution here is Zargothractic narration on a few tracks. With all writing credited to “Gloryhammer,” it’s tough to say who’s responsible for what.

Let me point out that I had to search the Gloryhammer subreddit to find even this much, and golly, that is a… dedicated fan base. Took ages. Oy.

Anyway, Gloryhammer remains consistent conceptually on this fourth venture – the lyrics are as loony as ever and the continuing mythology has given the more lore-driven fans a great deal to chew on. There are some musical reprises scattered throughout here, such as “Hail To Crail” in “Brothers Of Crail,” “Rise Of The Chaos Wizards” in “Holy Flaming Hammer Of Unholy Cosmic Frost,” and “Gloryhammer” itself in “Maleficus Geminus.” There is also some killer songwriting to be found here; there’s nothing that has grabbed me as immediately as “Universe On Fire,” “The Unicorn Invasion Of Dundee,” or “Hootsforce,” but in “Holy Flaming Hammer Of Unholy Cosmic Frost” and “Keeper Of The Celestial Flame Of Abernathy” I see some of the band’s best work to date. I do have the sense that this may be a more transitional album for Gloryhammer than is immediately apparent, and after being disappointed by Legends From Beyond The Galactic Terrorvortex I am only partially reassured by this new development – but we’ll have to see where this reconfigured lineup takes Gloryhammer in the future.