'Virtual Empire', Crystal Ball's third album, originally released on Nuclear Blast in 2002, has been carefully remastered and reissued in numbered gold discs by those Polish metal maniacs, MetalMind Productions.
This is one of those albums that you have to inhabit for a while before you get anything of value out of it.
Being fellow countrymen of Gotthard,
Krokus and Shakra, there's a clear and obvious influence. The first 3 tracks are solid, dependable, with producer, Tommy Newton taking the safe route through heavy'n'hard melodic rock, on an album full of soundly written songs, steeped in melodrama.
The problem with this becomes apparent early on: the genre's stylistic limitations can become a musical straitjacket, allowing the band little freedom to develop and grow.
Newton is something of an enigma. Outstanding song
'Night & Day' is clearly straining against the leash. But it gets a ponderous production. Where it needs to be agile, light on its feet, it plods. When it needs to maintain momentum, it slows right down. So much promised, so little delivered.
Yet, on
'Am I Free' they combine in the studio to throw off the genre's shackles, letting loose on a song with a chorus that blazes with a fiery blast of melodic metal, climaxing in a towering hook. A sudden shift into a theatrical, compellingly dramatic middle section, complimenting the song's lofty sentiments was a genuine masterstroke, showing Newton to be something of an eccentric genius.
Many of the songs are peppered with power metal moments, often threading the fabric of the band's music with neoclassical, twin guitar fills and frills.
The tracks that successfully combine the hard'n'heavy melodic rock with symphonic rock and power metal elements are the ones that work best.
While cliched tracks like
'Blindside' and
'Dance With The Devil' are superfluous,
title track,
'Virtual Empire' is an engaging synchronisation of rock and metal, And on tracks like the breezy, cheesy
'When The Night Is Over' and the rhythmic, slower paced
'Talk In Circles' there are enough truly affecting moments to indicate a healthy future for the band.
They released three more albums, with the last,
'Secrets' coming in 2007.
Written by
Brian Sunday, January 31, 2010
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