kens dojo reincarnation

Released: 27 August 2010 Label: AOR Heaven

his album kicks off in fine style, with Keeping the Flame Alive in particular being an almighty slice of Queensryche-inspired melodrama that wouldn’t be out of place on Empire.

A shame then that journeyman guitarist and Kung Fu black belt Ken Ingwersen fails to sustain the early promise. It’s certainly not for the want of trying, but even some high profile cameos fail to really spark the album into life.

Perhaps the biggest stumbling block is the lack of stylistic consistency. Reincarnation jumps around in a pretty haphazard fashion, resulting in songs that might be decent in isolation never quite gelling as a whole.

The undoubted vocal talents of the ubiquitous Glenn Hughes never quite raise I Surrender above anything other than an also-ran rock ballad, while the one and only Chesney Hawkes falls equally short on the title track, which is all downbeat funk reminiscent of Dan Reed Network at their most middle of the road.

Throw in a few unmemorable soft rock plodders and a couple of Satriani-style guitar instrumentals and you’ll just find yourself wishing for more like the opening couple of tracks.

The album is nicely produced and Ingwersen excels with some fantastic guitar work throughout, but all too rarely do the songs live up to the same standard. Instead of shelling out for the entire album, this is best previewed before you cherry pick the couple of genuinely outstanding tracks to download.

by Marcus Jervis