Review by Saxy S for Judicator - Let There Be Nothing (2020)

Let There Be Nothing is the fifth studio album from Arizona based power metal outfit, Judicator. And the question that should be at the top of everyone’s mind is: who the hell is Judicator? I had never heard of this group until recently so I decided to give their newest album a listen and...well I see why I only just discovered them.

The power metal elements that are on display here are very pedestrian. The over the top vocal arrangements, plenty of guitar solos and riffage is all stuff that has been played to death in recent years, including by Blind Guardian, the band that Judicator is explicitly trying to imitate. I will give the band some credit as the production of the album is pretty good, especially in the low end.

But that leads me into something that I don’t usually discuss when reviewing albums (although it is very much implied): the performances. Dear god, this percussion sounds awful! It is so muffled in the mix that much of the groove falls flat The bass player tries their best to fill out the space leftover with competence, but then you also have to consider that many of these beats are delayed, making everything else fall out of sync. Also John Yelland is no Hansi Kirsch, no matter how desperately he tries.

Compositions are pretty standard power metal. I like the tremolo picking guitar leads that are reminiscent of black metal on “Autumn of Souls” and the opener “Let There Be Light” is a decent starting point. But the rest of the album falls through some baffling cracks. Like how so many of the songs (especially “Strange to the World”) have transitions between different ideas that aren’t so much weaved together as much as they are slapped together with arts & crafts glue that you would have used in elementary school. And when the tracks feel even longer than their runtime entails, that’s a big problem.

So uhh… not really a good jumping on point I would say. Judicator is not reinventing any wheels in power metal at the moment. And if that works for them, then so be it. Just don’t be surprised if we get really tired of it very quickly.