• New Music Reviews
• |
• Archives
• |
• News
• |
• Submissions
• |
• About
• |
• 
• |
• 

May 2025

• Laurenne/Louhimo: Falling Through Stars
• Rock Out: Let's Call It Rock N Roll
• The Flower Kings: Love
• Maestrick : Espresso Della Vita: Lunare

March 2025

• W.E.T.: Apex
• Alliance: Before Our Eyes
• Ginevra: Beyond Tomorrow
• Phil X & The Drills:
  Pow! Right In The Kisser
• IQ: Dominion
• Heart Line: Falling Heaven
• Gotthard: Stereo Crush
• Defender: Dying To Live
• Streetlight: Night Vision

February 2025

• Robin McAuley: Soulbound
• Perfect Plan: Heart Of A Lion
• Craig Brooks: Desolation Freeway
• Mantric Momentum: Alienized
• Pattern-Seeking Animals: Friend Of All Creatures
• Crazy Lixx: Thrill Of The Bite
• Ginger Evil: The Way It Burns
• Dream Theater: Parasomnia
• Tyran: Tyran's Oath
• Saber: Lost In Flames

January 2025

• Wildness: Avenger
• The Ferrymen: Iron Will
• Labyrinth: In The Vanishing Echoes Of Goodbye
• Bonfire: Higher Ground
• The Big Deal: Electrified
• Landfall: Wide Open Sky

December 2024

• After Lapse: Pathways
• Illusion Force: Halfana
• Powell-Payne: Voilá

November 2024

• Sunstorm: Restless Fight
• Storace: Crossfire
• Voodoo Circle: Hail To The King
• Lionville: Supernatural
• Starchaser: Into The Great Unkown
• Empires Of Eden: Guardians Of Time
• Lonerider: Down In The Dust
• Seventh Crystal: Entity
• Neal Morse & The Resonance: No Hill For A Climber
• Beardfish: Songs For Beating Hearts
• Impellitteri: War Machine
• Brothers Of Metal: Fimbulvinter

[ More Music Reviews ]

ReinXeed: 1912

Melodic Power Metal

3.0/5.0

Liljegren Records
Website Facebook MySpace
by Craig Hartranft,  06.06.2011

If anything Tommy Johansson and ReinXeed are prolific; 1912 is their second album in less than nine months. The heirs to the Scandinavian melodic power metal throne long held by Stratovarius and Hammerfall seem able to crank out tunes with ease and abandon. And this could be the inherent problem with this work.

Certainly, 1912 finds ReinXeed well into their metal groove. You can't dispute the strength of their music: melodic, symphonic, and fast paced power metal with layers of keyboards and huge guitar solos. It's a power metal lovers wet dream. But ultimately that's all 1912 is: a huge platter of conventional European power metal. There's little variation or inspiration here. Where ReinXeed found their place on last year's Majestic, now the seem happy to merely manufacture power metal songs like punching out metal widgets on an assembly line. They are dangerously close to becoming an parody or caricature of themselves, and even closer to being dismissed as another exaggeration of the genre. All this in nine months and one work.

Nevertheless, for melodic power metal in its most bombastic glory, ReinXeed's 1912 is the thing. And I still can't pronounce the band's name.

Note: All Amazon advertising in this review first benefits the artist, then Craig Hartranft also receives a residual. Click, and thanks for your support.

Reinxeed's 1912 a power metal lovers wet dream. But ultimately that's all it is: a huge platter of conventional European power metal.

Alphabetical Index

Here's a fun fact about Swiss legends, Gotthard: their last 16 releases, excepting their debut album, went to number one in their home country, making them one of Switzerland's most successful acts and ... [ Read More ]