Solemnity – ‘Opus Barbaricum’

Heavy Horror Metal

Solemnity Music/Hofa

Release date – May 15^th 2026

Well, here’s a thing. A one man Power Metal army – Sven The Axe sings, plays and writes everything on this having taken the solo reins last year. It’s no exaggeration to say Sven has thrown the kitchen sink into this having developed ‘Heavy Horror Metal’ through his previous albums with themes of horror, mythology and dark fantasy which are perfect for his genre.

Things open with a soft acoustic on ‘Nightmares From The Neighbourhood’ before the masculine voice of Sven starts the story over some melodic power metal straight out of the Powerwolf book before ‘The Last Ghostrider’ brings a choir, some power chords and a chugging riff along with some huge vocals. ‘Meat Evil Steel (A Barbecue Symphony In B Minor)’ has to be heard to be believed. The screams at the beginning could shatter glass then we get the story of his barbecue. Ridiculous and cheesy but jeez it rocks like a bastard then ‘Empire In The Underground’ takes the baton with some sublime lead work and another beefy vocal. ‘Escape From The Matrix’ (guess what that’s about) comes down in pace but still gets the head nodding then the huge ballad ‘Freya’ shows his full operatic range then we get the even more ridiculous but equally excellent ‘Cheesecake Commando’. ‘The Sleeper’ is the Edgar Allen Poe poem set to music composed by Sven and a damn fine tune it is too. It’s epic and powerful with some huge melodies. ‘Bitch With The Bow’ rattles along on a spidery riff and let me tell you don’t get mixed up with this chick! ‘We Will Shine’, ‘Storm Of Steel’ and ‘The Dragon’ are all metal bangers before the symphonic ballad ‘Drums Of War (Resistance)’ brings a whole load of wonderful strings before it gets seriously going. ‘Idiocracy’ has a twin guitar intro before it slips into some superb melodic metal which leads to ‘Gladiator’ with some more twin guitars that develop into a Maiden-esque gallop. Still there’s more – ‘The Way To A Fortunate Wedding (By Henry VIII)’ chugs along on the tale of Our ‘Enry’. ‘Frozen In Time’ gives us one more power ballad that leaves us spent.

Seventeen tracks and all of them a winner no fat no filler. This is seriously good and a must for any self-respecting lover of Power Metal. I’m kinda new to the genre so I’m still discovering acts like Powerwolf, HammerFall etc but this has gone right to top of my Power Metal playlist. Superb songs, brilliantly played with a huge production. I’ve listened to this regularly over the last month and I still get goosebumps as well as hear things I didn’t previously. Awesome, epic, grandiose. A future classic? Definitely.

Track List –

Nightmares From The Neighbourhood

The Last Ghostrider

Meat Evil Steel

Empire In The Underground

Escape From The Matrix

Freya

Cheesecake Commando

The Sleeper

Bitch With The Bow

We Will Shine

Storm Of The Steel

The Dragon

Drums Of War (Resistence)

Idiocracy

Gladiator

The Way To A Fortunate Wedding (By Henry VIII)

Frozen In Time