| ReinXeed | |
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ReinXeed Members |
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| Background information | |
| Origin | Boden, Sweden |
| Genres | Symphonic metal Power metal |
| Years active | Since 2004 |
| Labels | Rivel Records |
| Members | |
| Tommy Johansson Mattias Johansson Calle Sundberg Nic Svensson Viktor Olofsson |
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| Past members | |
| Pontus Allebo (Guitar, Backing Vocals) Robin Sjogren (Drums) Linus Eriksson (Bass, Backing Vocals) Kerry Lundberg (guitars and backing vocals) Ace Thunder (bass guitar) Erik Forsgren (drums) Henrik Fellermark (keyboards and backing vocals) |
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ReinXeed is a symphonic/power metal band from Boden, Sweden. They were formed in 2004 by vocalist Tommy Johansson. They are influenced by soundtrack movies such as Lord of the Rings and bands like Helloween with Michael Kiske, and Rhapsody of Fire.
In 2008, ReinXeed released their first studio album The Light on Rivel Records. This helped ReinXeed land an appearance in Japan where they gained fans.[1] Their second album, Higher, has more mature keyboards effects. The band has toured in Sweden and have been working to write material for the new album Majestic.[1] The band is hoping to be touring abroad, especially in Japan.
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There is an earlier ReinXeed from 2004, but that has nothing to do with the present lineup or the music. The actual ReinXeed is led by Tommy Johansson.
The story of ReinXeed started place in a town called Boden in the north of Sweden. ReinXeed is Tommy Johansson's musical creation and vision and finally will see the light with its debut album The Light.
Tommy Johansson started to play guitar at the age of nine after he’d seen Gary Moore’s video “Out in the Fields” and singing at the age of 15 when he was introduced to Skid Row's track "18 And Life". His days of soft rock were over when he first heard Helloween and Stratovarius.
After some years in a music school, Tommy had become more of a "all man musician" who could play almost everything: decent guitar, piano, singing, drums, bass guitar and also flute. His songwriting had of course developed to a more advanced level.
In 2006, he decided that movie soundtracks mixed with melodic power metal would be very cool music to compose and record. He got his own studio together, started to record these songs again with a better quality, and put them up on his MySpace site. By doing that, Daniel Eskilsson drummer and band leader of the Swedish melodic power metal band Majestic Vanguard heard Tommy's songs and set him in touch with Christian Liljegren of Rivel Records / CM Sweden. Jani Stefanovic from Divinefire and Essence of Sorrow co-produced & mixed the album and handled all the drums on the album.[2]
On The Light Johansson took on a “one man project role” in he handled just about all aspect of the recording process (similar to Matt Smith on the first Theocracy album). Higher, however, finds the artist backed by a full piece band in that he has recruited two guitarist (Kerry Lundberg & Mattias Johansson), a keyboardist (Henrik Fellermark), drummer (Erik Forsgren) and bassist (Ace Thunder). Needless to say, the overall performance is impressive.[3]
Reinxeed began to record their first studio album entitled The Light, released March 12 in Japan, June 20 in Europe, via Rivel Records. On the debut album the musical inspiration came from Gary Moore, every album between 1983-89, Angra - Rebirth, Stratovarius - Destiny, Episode, Visions, Infinite. Robby Valentine - everything he’s ever done, Symphony X - Odyssey and Helloween, & Keeper of the Seven Keys 1 & 2.
The ReinXeed concept story of The Light: “This is a story between good and evil, where greed and power are united to conquer both sides into one dark place. “ReinXeed – The Light” is a story of the real life we live today, but summarized into metaphors in a story of two kingdoms, Reindhill and Heelh. Once they were united as one, God had sent them a flower to grow called Langarin who had a healing divine power and were used for good only. But greed fell over the land of Heelh and they lay claim to the Langarin, and the harmony between them ended in silence. Reindhill got the quest from God to retain the goodness and restore the line between good and evil, for the prophecy of a perfect world had to be...” Tommy Johansson [2]
The Light can best be described as melodic power metal with the occasional symphonic tendency. Fans of Royal Hunt, Avantasia and Sonata Arctica will find a lot to like here as will those into Theocracy, Narnia, Essence of Sorrow and Majestic Vanguard. Up-tempo numbers such as “The Light” (as fast a song as you will find), melodic based “Great Hall Of ReinXeed” and keyboard driven “Eternity” are as good as it gets. Of equal merit are more progressive based pieces “Northern Sky” and “Kingdom Fall” along with the shredding instrumental “Heavenly Fire”.
Higher was released via Rivel Records on 15, May 2009, and in Japan via King Records on 25, March 2009 including a bonus track "Dreams". Angelicwarlord.com found the audio mix of Higher to be cleaner in comparison to The Light with a "near perfect" mix of guitar leads, drums and keyboards. One criticism was the lack of "an all out element of aggression", with the rhythm guitar sometimes lost in the mix: "There [are] portions of several songs in which all you hear are keyboards and drums, leaving one almost begging for some guitar driven muscle." [3]
This album has been released worldwide. It's the third album of this power metal band.
1912 is their fourth album. It is a concept album about the Titanic and its sinking. The Japanese edition includes three bonus track: "ReinXeed Alliance", "Aces High" (an Iron Maiden cover) and "Pray for Japan", a song done to support Japan in the aftermath of the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
ReinXeed's style is symphonic metal with a clean vocal and melodic symphonies. The band cite their influences as Robby Valentine, Helloween - Michael Kiske, Edguy, Gary Moore, Sebastian Bach - Skid Row, and movie soundtracks such as (Lord of the Rings), Time Machine, Stargate and Hook.