Thursday, April 26, 2012

VENGEANCE: "Crystal Eye"

Rating: 5/10
Label: SPV/Steamhammer 2012
Review by: Urban "Wally" Wallstrom

"Crystal Eye" is the rationalistic titled new album by Dutch cult metal legends Vengeance. Originally with Arjen Lucassen among their ranks and signed to CBS Holland after only one live performance in 1983, the band has been a on/off project for ages and the line-up has changed around quite a bit since really. But I digress as usual, you're probably not interested in finding out more of the same old boring trivial facts regarding their background history anyhow.

What's up with their music of twenty twelve? Well, their guitar driven agenda powers the album along at what seems a steady beat and pace, which quickly becomes rather one dimensional actually. Perhaps mostly due to lack of killer hooks and/or sing-a-long moments? Merely tiny bits and pieces of the band's bouncing, youthful? enthusiasm of the past are to be found on "Crystal Eye". Barbwire vocalist 'Neon' Leon Goewie do spark like a morbid kind of Las Vegas show on a couple of the tracks.'Whole Lotta Metal','Bad To The Bone' and the powerballad, ' Promise Me'. But to be frank, the rockers from Holland are mostly plodding along to mid tempo AC/DC vs. Priest rock/metal and it does show that not even the coolest of monicker can save them in the end (Vengeance is a pretty cool name for a metal band though). To quote their live album from 2007, 'same, same, but different'...

No comments:

Post a Comment