KENS DOJO – Reincarnation

Kens Dojo is a solo project from guitar player, songwriter and producer Ken Ingwersen. Ingwersen has been involved in bands like Rags, Speed, Street Legal and the Ken Hensley Band, but now he felt it was time for a solo album. Reincarnation is a straight out Melodic Rock album and he got quite a line-up of vocalists and instrumentalists to help him out. The album includes performances from, among others; Glenn Hughes (ex-Deep Purple), Ken Hensley (ex-Uriah Heep), Michael Eriksen (Circus Maximus), Nils K. Rue (Pagans Mind), Chesney Hawkes, Tommy La Verdi (ex-21 Guns), Eirikur Hauksson aka Eric Hawk (ex-Artch), Truls Haugen (Circus Maximus), Morty Black (ex-TNT) and Jon Rydningen (Dream Police).

The variation that the various vocalists bring to the table is one of the reasons why this album is so good. You’ve got power ballads such as “I Surrender” that sees a performance extraordinaire by Glenn Hughes. The song is excellently written and leaves a lot of headroom for Hughes to play with. The result is spectacular. Then you’ve got the more powerful Hard Rock songs with Nils K. Rue, Michael Eriksen and Tommy La Verdi and downtempo Rock songs like the title track featuring Chesney Hawk. Ingwersen’s songwriting is great and his guitar work is strong throughout the album. The solos are superb and there’s no wonder why this man is a sought-after  session musician. He handles most of the bass, keys and backing vocals as well.

The instrumentals on Reincarnation seem like a waste of time though. For instance “Momentos A Solas” is a slow and simple guitar driven instrumental that could easily fit the profile of any Axel Rudi Pell album, and it doesn’t really fit the profile of this album. The same goes for “El Recreo.” Plus snare drums with the amount of reverb that can be heard on “Momentos A Solas” were abandoned in the 80s for a reason. The only light in that tunnel is brought in with “Soundcheck Bonanza.” It’s got more speed than the other two, is way more challenging, and seems to fit the profile of the album a bit more.

Reincarnation is one of the most exciting Melodic Rock releases to surface in 2010, the line-up alone confesses to that. The record is a strong testament of Ken Ingwersen’s dedication to the genre and is bound to please every Melodic Rock fan around the world.

Tracklist

Forever (feat. Michael Eriksen)/Keeping The Flame Alive (feat. Nils K. Rue)/I Surrender (feat. Glenn Hughes)/Reincarnation (feat. Chesney Hawkes)/Momentos A Solas (Instrumental)/Demon In Diamonds (feat. Tommy La Verdi)/Come Alive (feat. Eirikur Hauksson and Ken Hensley)/El Recreo (Instrumental)/Set This Angel Free (feat. Michael Eriksen)/Rain (feat. Eirikur Hauksson)/Soundcheck Bonanza (Instrumental)