When one fan is dealing with labels, it’s needed to understand that a genre varies a lot from country to country, because there’s a background that a musician grows into, so things aren’t the same. North American Power Metal isn’t like Brazilian or German Power Metal, there are many differences. To have such idea clear, one can taste “World on Fire”, the new album of the North American quartet MILLENIAL REIGN. As all North American Power Metal acts, even with a technical outfit, the quartet here presents something as melodic as on the other countries of the world, but’s heavy and catching in a Hard Rock/US Metal sense, even bearing some Prog Metal elements (as heard on the silk moments of “Wandering”).

The album bears a lot of surprises for the fans, with songs combining melodies, energy and weight, always with a refined technical appeal (and some keyboards parts are tempering things in a great way). “World on Fire” was recorded, mixed and mastered by Dave Harvey (the band’s guitarist) at The Upper Room Studio, things are sounding clean and defined, but heavy as well, and extremely full of life and energy, with everything clear for the sake of then fans’ understanding, and what great artwork was created by Jan Yrlund (the same one who made arts for BATTLE BEAST, APOCALYPTICA, DELAIN and others).

But everything would be a waste if they couldn’t create a good set of songs, as heard on “Bring Me to Life” (a heavy and energetic song, with a great balance between weight and instrumental technique, and the vocals are great, especially on the catchy chorus), “Wandering” (that bears some Middle-East melodies and arrangements, with excellent instrumental arrangements, especially on bass guitar and drums), “Trust” (who has a lot of Hard Rock hooks, an inheritance of US Metal acts), “We Follow On” (another fine combination of melodic hooks and intense weight, with arrowing guitar riffs and arrangements), “Eternity” (that has the same elements of the previous song, but with a more accessible outfit), “Crack the Eastern Sky” (if you can’t understand how Hard Rock is important to US Metal inner musical features, pay attention to this one), and to “Tongues of Fire”, “World on Fire”, “Onward to Victory” and “Allied Forces” as well. This means that all the songs are really excellent.

If you never heard MILLENIAL REIGN’s work before, “World on Fire” it’s a fine opportunity to do it, especially because it’s the band’s first release with its new singer, Tiffany Galchutt.