MILLENNIAL REIGN: Carry the Fire Again
Millennial Reign are BACK! Their new 4-song EP, Carry the Fire Again, releases this month. It contains four refreshed tracks from their album Carry the Fire, thus the name. The reason for the refreshed tracks? Because this time around, the band is sporting yet another new vocalist. At the helm this time we find some amazing amazing pipes with Tiffany Galchutt. With her addition to the line-up, the band moves into the familiar realm of female-fronted symphonic metal bands that we get treated to quite often these days.
The tracks, though not fully a re-record, have been remixed, remastered and some addition studio pieces, I am told. Including the songs Way Up High, Millennial Reign, Men Stand Alone, and Innocent Cry, the overall sound a feel is a pretty drastic change in places, so it is a whole new experience.
Way Up High was probably the one I find changing the most in overall style. Where it was previously more predominantly guitars in the opening section, it now has brought the keys was up to the forefront, as well as symphonic and almost ghostly vocal drones accents common to this styling. Is more keys, less guitar a good thing? In this case, it is. It works very well and now this song definitely has a much more symphonic metal feel.
Doing a side-by-side comparison of the other three tracks alongside their predecessors reveals not as drastic of a change as the feel on Way Up High though. The remix we do find throughout is still almost a night-and-day difference in sound quality. The drums and guitar tones are less muddy than previously, and much more pronounced and clear, for an overall more polished and heavy sound.
Then you add on top of all of that, the new vocals of Tiffany, and we have quite a nice little introduction of what should be exciting things to come for this band. I felt there was a huge jump forward for the band between 2015’s Carry the Fire and 2018’s The Great Divide (see our album review here).
Yes, revisiting these earlier album tracks feels a bit like stepping backwards ever so slightly. Yet, while I find these tracks a vast-improvement in every way over the originals, I am most excited at the thought of what Tiffany will bring to the mix when we get some new tracks from the more-mature sounding band-sound, post The Great Divide.
Millennial Reign: Brief History
Although they had an independently released album in 2012, for most of us, it was in 2015 when we truly discovered Millennial Reign. They burst their way into the metal scene through their Ulterium Records debut Carry the Fire. With the release, we found a seasoned band of musicians offering us a blend of power and symphonic metal magic. The band made a pretty big hit in melodic metal circles, and they went on to support bands like Sonata Arctica, Delain, Omnium Gatherum and Joe Lynn Turner, as well as Stryper on the “To Hell With The Devil” 30th Anniversary tour in late 2016 .
After the tour, three of the band’s musicians dropped out, and replacements were brought in in time to do shows with Hammerfall, Delain and Theocracy. Unfortunately, after those shows, vocalist James Guest had to bow out too. With their follow up album in the works, they brought in an interim vocalist in Travis Wills to complete the album and some addition big name tour dats. With that, we were given The Great Divide in May 2018, also through Ulterium Records; in my opinion, a much more powerful step forward for the band. (See our interview from that time period HERE)
After all of those commitments were fulfilled, the band began looking for a permanent vocalist, and in comes Tiffany. She joins other member, founder and guitarist Dave Harvey, Steve Nichols (Solitude Aeturnus) on drums and Neil Bertrand (When Angels Die) on bass guitar.
And per the band site, yes, a new album is forthcoming! So, we look at this Carry the Fire Again EP as being simple a taste of what is to come. I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait!!