ReinXeed
Welcome To The Theater

July 2012
Released: 2012, Liljgren Records
Rating: 4.5/5
Reviewer: JP

Our regular readers will know I've been pretty hot on this band the past few years and fortunately they are on creative roll with six albums in five years which means more ReinXeed for me! Their latest Speed Metal opus is called WELCOME TO THE THEATER and it comes out almost a year to the day since the last one.



Like the last album, 1912, this is a thematic album. The last album was a theme about the Titanic, and while I loved it, perhaps not everyone could relate to an hours worth of songs about a boat that sank 100 years ago. This new album will have a much broader appeal as their chosen lyrical theme is...Action movies! Each song is about a movie. This idea has been done before by Metal bands who have done each song about a horror movie; Force Of Evils', 2005 album, BLACK EMPIRE for example. Lots of bands have been inspired by movies but I think this is the first time this has been done on this scale focusing on Blockbuster action movies.



It's quite fun to figure out which song is about which movie but the band are smart enough to work in lines of dialogue from the film into the lyrics and they even have musical reference points for those people who may be familiar with the movies soundtrack. It's all very clever and well done. I won't spoil it and tell you the name of every movie being interpreted into song (you can have fun figuring it out for yourself!) but I will say that the movies are of the American Blockbuster category such as Jurassic Park, Spiderman, and Pirates of The Caribbean. The rest are up to you!



If you are new to ReinXeed, and haven't read my other three reviews on the site, suffice to say they are leaders in the emerging scene of ultra-fast, squeaky-clean, Speed Metal, self-billed as 'Adventure Metal'. This means tons and tons of solos, keyboards and really high vocals all propelled to Valhalla by relentless double-kick drums. ReinXeed are the reigning kings of this style, perhaps only challenged in their supremacy by Dragonforce or perhaps Pathfinder from Poland.Tommy has to be one of the most talented guitarists around today.



In terms of production, presentation, song-writing it's all par for the course, no changes necessary or needed. Its all immaculate, sterile and quite hyper! There are a few changes in lineup again but ReinXeed has also been the brainchild of Tommy Johansson and the lineup has been very fluid album to album, tour to tour.



As more and more bands like ReinXeed start playing this style, the more I see the logic behind the theory that Rhapsody, and their innovative brand of 'Hollywood/Filmscore Metal', are the most influential band in the past decade. WELCOME TO THE THEATER owes a debt of gratitude to Rhapsody and we fans owe ReinXeed a debt if gratitude for another superb and supremely entertaining album.