Reinxeed: 1912

Well it's a year after the release of Majestic and it seems that Reinxeed is still on the same path. Granted they have removed some of the cheese from their previous effort and added some more direction to their music, but there's still enough there that makes you wonder if they learned from their last release. I enjoy some genre clichés in my music, but the amount that Reinxeed puts in unnerves me a bit. This album doesn't have an overwhelming amount but it's way more than enough. A good thing about this album is that, as I said before, it has direction to it. 1912 is, as you might've guessed, about the tragic tale of the Titanic, its maiden voyage, and its end. While it's an odd topic that I've never heard before in music, let alone metal, it provides for a good story line. But, you probably don't care for a history lesson so onto the music.

The title track starts right off with a clichéd beginning, with epic synth lines and drums but it eventually settles downs to a lower pace rhythm that is pretty enjoyable. But eventually, like with most of their stuff, it resorts back to pretty cheesy power metal. Tommy Johansson's vocals on this song and throughout the album are pretty good, but as was with the last album, they are pretty silly when you listen to them. But all in all they sound good and I enjoyed listening to them, though by the end of the album I was just a little sick of them. One thing about the story line that's weird is that it seems to jump around a bit. First it starts with boarding the boat then there's a song about the crash and then it goes back and forth between getting saved and the boat crashing again. The cool part about the concept is that at the end the songs seem to take you through different people's reactions, and what happened to different people.

The guitars on this album are pretty good, also, but as with most cheesy power metal and symphonic metal releases they go on long cheesy guitar riffs that are repeated over and over again. While I do enjoy some of these riffs for their apparent simplicity, if Reinxeed would just cut down a little on the technicality on some songs and slow things down they would have much more diversity on their albums. The production one this album is very crisp and clean. It layers the vocals and guitars almost perfectly, making for a nice feel.

As I said with their last release, if you like very cheesy power/symphonic metal go ahead and pick this up. But, otherwise beware of this album. There are some very good moments on this album, but if you don't want to sit through a bunch of clichés to get there this album definitely isn't for you. Reinxeed once again gets 3 stars.

Track Listing
1. 1912
2. The Final Hour
3. Terror Has Begun
4. Spirit Lives On
5. Through The Fire
6. The Fall Of Man
7. The Voyage
8. We Must Go Faster
9. Challenge The Storm
10. Reach For The Sky
11. Farewell
12. Lost At Sea

Added: July 5th 2011
Reviewer: Brian Block
Score:
Related Link: Band Website
Hits: 2890
Language: english

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