The Block
Sword in cheese
I tried to be King Arthur and pull the sword from out under all this cheddar, but King Arthur has no place in the land of Reinxeed. Focusing mainly on the tales of J.R.R. Tolkien, Reinxeed paves their way through waves of cheese. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoy this album a lot, but it’s some of the cheesiest power metal out there.
One of the main accomplices to this cheesy album is the song “Never Lie”. The musicians on this track are very good, but they fall into the usual power metal rut that started with the first song and goes throughout the whole album. The drums are constantly good, but very identical to that of most other power metal albums. The guitars are very good to open it up, but they end up in the same rut as the drums, droning on in a very cheesy fashion. The chorus is what really gets me every time, though. The vocals are very crisp and clean but I can’t get over the words which are “…never lie, it will affect your destiny…” In my opinion, it doesn’t get much cheesier than that. But, as I said before, even though it’s king of unoriginal and cheesy, it’s very enjoyable.
Songs like “Atlantis” offer great vocal harmonies that really show how talented Tommy Johansson and Kerry Lundberg are. Also the solos on this album are pretty good. One song that portrays this well is “My Paradise”. Besides great vocals in the beginning, it has great guitar licks that fit right in sync with the drums, offering a semi cheesy, yet enjoyable feel to it. Also about halfway through there’s a great electric guitar solo, making this one of my favorite songs. Another thing that makes it one of my favorites is that is doesn’t have many cheesy vocals on it.
The production one this album is very crisp and clean. It layers the vocals and guitars almost perfectly, making for a nice feel.
So, if you’re a fan of cheesy power metal, go right ahead and pick this one up. But, if you don’t want to labor to wade through all the cheese, I wouldn’t recommend it. Fro their pretty good release Reinxeed gets 3 stars.