ReinXeed - The Light
Rivel Records
Melodic Power Metal
10 songs (53:36)
Release year: 2008
Rivel Records
Reviewed by Kyle
Archive review

Typically, metal and Christianity aren’t exactly a prime blend. Christian Death Metal is hit or miss, Christian Black Metal is little more than a joke, and Christian Metalcore is quite possibly the worst thing to spawn from the metal community since its very beginnings. One type of Christian metal that is amazingly consistent, however, is Christian Power Metal. Perhaps it’s because the musicians have spent most of their Sundays singing songs from church hymnals, thus giving them a natural ability to write beautiful, uplifting hymn-like melodies combined with traditional Power Metal music. Just look at Seventh Avenue, Theocracy, and Galloglass: all Christian bands, and all nothing short of great. And now out of Vindeln, Sweden comes ReinXeed, another well-above-average Power Metal band that has some really great songs and original elements at their disposal on their debut album, The Light.

ReinXeed play a style of Power Metal that’s similar to bands like Heavenly, with some great orchestral arrangements here and there and neoclassical influences throughout. Though Christians, these musicians certainly aren’t humble when it comes to their talent; the entire album is a shred-fest, from the excellent opening track (The Light) to the closing instrumental (Heavenly Fire), the latter of which featuring some awesome solos and chord progression. Most of the songs are fairly good, and they all have their moments: The choruses of The Light and Eternity, the intro to Great Hall Of ReinXeed, and the superb, Axenstar-esque vocal harmonies on Northern Sky are little bits of excellence throughout an overall solid album.

As with most Christian PM bands today, ReinXeed doesn’t opt for overtly in-your-face lyrics that showcase the band’s beliefs in a way that chastises those who don’t agree with them. Rather, they talk about aspects of Christianity and God that in no way will be offensive to any listener that doesn’t identify with the subject matter. The lyrics are very well sung by vocalist Tommy Johansson, who has very good range, though his mid-range sounds much better than his high-range. It’s a bit too screechy and really grates after awhile; After listening to the title track, I took out my headphones and discovered that my ears were slightly ringing.

Unfortunately, there’s a couple of "Meh" tracks on The Light that prevent it from being a truly great album. Legacy, Magic Night, Shyrheny, and Kingdom Fall are decent enough Power Metal songs, heavy on keyboards and double bass, but lack the originality that other songs on the record have. They’re just kinda sitting there amidst the standout tracks, but at least the way they’re placed on the album is good; They're dispersed evenly throughout The Light rather than being all crammed together, so that we have a very well-balanced album that manages to stay fresh all the way through. The real disappointment, however, is the song End Of This Journey, a ten-plus minute “Epic” that has SO much potential yet ultimately falls short. It starts out with an orchestral arrangement that builds and builds, and just when you expect the track to explode into a grand, bombastic Power Metal classic… it doesn’t. It just goes through the motions for the full ten minutes and fifteen seconds, and is really a letdown after such a great build-up in the beginning.

In the end, The Light turns out to be a pretty good and very enjoyable album, and Reinxeed establishes themselves as a very proficient melodic Power Metal act that is best described as a blend of Heavenly, Stratovarius, and Rhapsody. This is one entertaining, speedy little son of a bit... I mean, gun (Christian band, remember?) that is definitely worth checking out. You won’t really be missing out on much if you don’t, as half of the songs on The Light only qualify as “Good but not very memorable”, however, if you’re craving fast-paced, cheesy euro PM, this will please you without a doubt.

Killing Songs :
The Light, Great Hall Of ReinXeed, Eternity, Northern Sky, Heavenly Fire
Kyle quoted 79 / 100
Other albums by ReinXeed that we have reviewed:
ReinXeed - 1912 reviewed by Chris and quoted 77 / 100
ReinXeed - Higher reviewed by Kyle and quoted 87 / 100
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