1912

Tommy Johanssen’s intriguing vocals and the technically impressive play of guitars and keyboards lead you by the hand through a highly immersive power metal experience. With almost all songs dealing with the atypical and seemingly restrictive theme of the sinking of RMS Titanic, one may expect a largely dry listen. However, this is emphatically not the case, and the listener is kept on their toes throughout.

Tommy has a superlative power metal voice of the angelically clean flavour, and over which he exercises phenomenal control (no Tobias Sammet-style wavering, no ‘easy-upping‘ to reach the high notes, no gimmicky vocal techniques). His voice intriguingly has an almost mechanical purity, like some kind of human square-wave. This combined with the album’s good production and the pristine musicianship of the supporting instruments gives a fittingly high-polished feel. This is most apparent on their sign-off “Aces High” cover - easily the best Iron Maiden cover I’ve heard to date, and which makes Bruce Dickinson’s straining and stressful voice seem like vulgar amateurism in comparison. Did I just say that? ...I think I did. Wow. I feel like I’m in trouble. Carrying on...

All songs on this release, including the longer ones like “Spirit Lives On” and “Challenge the Storm”, achieve great musical texture without being overtly symphonic and risking boring the listener with forced musical landscape. All employ the correct amount of catchiness - enough to make you want to loop the fucker ad absurdum while squealing along like a girl; but not enough to warrant any accusation of triteness or cheesiness.

Although the focus of each song is squarely on the vocals, slicing riffs and soaring vocal climaxes make songs such as “Reach for the Sky” unequivocally golden. Guitar solos are very well written and generally lack the obvious arpeggio-based formula that most die-hard power metal fans have largely come to expect.

Though the album totally lacks ballads (which I happen to heartily approve of), save the sobering eulogy “Pray for Japan” at the end, there are slower songs such as “1912” and “Farewell” which have great character despite the lack of chasing, high-octane instrumentation.

Though all songs tell a similar story, each reveal a different perspective - there is no notion of ReinXeed trying the same approach for all 15 songs and hoping that a couple stick - 1912 is a maturely arranged album with a one-of-a-kind sound that defies comparison. In short: a solid power metal set.

I am very excited to hear what this band offers next.

Highly recommended.