Warner
released on october 31th 2007

Tracklist :
Don't Stop Believin'
We Don't Need Another Hero
Broken Wings
Rebel Yell
Ashes To Ashes
Fallen On Hard Times
I Just Died In Your Arms
Sledgehammer
Don't Bring Me Down
In The Air Tonight
Creep
Hello
Brothers In Arms

Northern Kings is a Finnish group created by four Finnish vocalist who are all coming from heavy metal groups:Marco Hietala (Nightwish/Tarot), Tony Kakko (Sonata Arctica), Juha-Pekka Leppäluoto (Charon/Amorphis) and J. Ahola (Teräsbetoni, yes; yes you know him, it is the group which has represented Finland in the Eurovision Contest this year, the only metal group!). The group has wanted to create something special and their idea was to rearranged 80s “classic” tracks in metal version, symphonic metal to be more precise… it is how is born the album « Reborn ». It is how we’ll find tracks such as « We Don’t Need Another Hero » from Tina Turner, « In The Air Tonight » from Phil Collins, « Brothers In Arms » from Dire Straits, « I Just Died In Your Arms Tonight » from Cutting Crew, « Ashes To Ashes » from David Bowie or « Sledgehammer » from Peter Gabriel.
It is sure that we are facing four vocalists who have great vocals capacities and who interpret in their way each of the tracks. The symphonic arrangements are of course much present and give another dimension to the tracks, some are better than other especially « Don’t Stop Believin’ » from Journey which is certainly not the best of the album even if it is well done musically and vocally speaking by Marco but it stays very different from the original. The tracks have very worked orchestrations with guitars passages as well as very well done soli.
If each of the vocalists sings alone on some songs, other times they share the vocals like in « We Don’t Need another Hero » and the mixes are very well done, each of the singers having a different tone. Musically and vocally speaking “Reborn” is an excellent album but a huge work has been done on the compositions arrangements level. My favourite tracks are « We Don’t Need Another Hero », « Rebel yell », « Brothers In Arms », « I Just Died In Your Arms », « Fallen On Hard Times » but the others are not bad neither…
I discover “by chance” this album because I saw that Marco Hietala sung within and frankly no regret, “Reborn” is an album to discover!!!

Line up :
Marco Hietala (chant) (vocals)
Tony Kakko (chant) (vocals)
Juha-Pekka Leppäluoto (chant) (vocals)
J. Ahola (chant) (vocals)

Contact:
www.myspace.com/northernkings

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