“Kingmaker” is Pretty Maids’ highly anticipated follow up to 2013's critically and commercially successful release “Motherland", a record that continued the “revitalized” path that the band set out upon with the now classic album “Pandemonium”. It's always difficult to follow a successful and inspired record, but “Kingmaker” shows Pretty Maids are still in the freshest and most vital phase of their career since the early 90’s.

The production is absolutely stellar thanks to Jacob Hansen (Volbeat), who has given the band a sound that not only reinvigorates them, but also incorporates the soundscapes of the past. Modern and classic at the same time, if you will. What can then be said about Ronnie Atkins and Ken Hammer? One of the best song writing teams in the genre, hands down. Atkins' voice just gets better and better as the years go by. Menacing and vicious one minute, melodic and soothing the next. Likewise, Hammer is on fire here and lays down some of his heaviest riffs in recent memory.

Every track on this beauty is worthy of attention whether it is an in-your-face melting barn burner such as the one-two starters “When God Took A Day Off” / “King Maker”, “Bullseye”, and “Humanize Me” or timeless melodic metal anthems such as “Face the World” and “Heaven’s Little Devil” or even a superb power ballad like “Last Beauty on Earth”. This record has everything Pretty Maids could possibly ask for!