This release from the U.K. quintet known as
Crimson Altar represents more or less a demo, but don't get me wrong, they have the right idea. With the musicianship, songwriting, and musical ideas being up to par, the beginning of an evolution might be en-tact here, I mean this is the debut, and it takes a few listens to really hear the capabilities. With the vocals of Judy K. being a cross between Chrissie Hynde (The Pretenders) and Anneke van Giersbergen (The Gathering) and the music being filled with dark Sabbath-esque riffs that provide the thick overtones of the Goth inflected backdrop, the sound isn't too far fetched from anything to begin with, but some production tweaking could help propel the band to more discrete sounding heights.
For instance, the recording is dry sounding with little or no reverb, being that it does have a rehearsal room sound, but it technically makes the vocals sound too forward and the drums too harsh, regardless the mix is fairly tight. Getting past the production, the music, tends to be strong, there is a need for tweaking of course, but the riffs prove strong, the cuts themselves are laden with hooks, with the record itself representing different styles of songs, such as the thick riff driven songs such as
"Blood on the Hawthorne," and
"Sick of Shadows" to the dark grind of
"My Dark Rose Bleeds" to the ballads
"Falling" and
"Within the Tears of Solitude," representing the diversity in the songwriting.
With a little more production value added, who knows, we probably are looking at another strong Goth Metal band, but until that time this will just have to serve as a demo quality example of the band's capabilities.
Written by
Hashman Saturday, May 29, 2004
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