Crystal Tears: Decadence Deluxe

Decadence Deluxe is the fourth album from the Power Metal band Crystal Tears, that features 10 new tracks and 3 Classic Rock covers. Filled with aggression and shreddie guitars abound, Crystal Tears delivers a heavy, although not a terribly original record.

Full of energy is a way to describe the Decadence Deluxe record. This is very much a Euro Power Metal type of album (sans the "Demons & Wizards" imagery) filled with hyper sped double bass drumming, tons of guitar pick harmonics, decent vocals and all done by a band that calls Greece, Hungary and Denmark their homes. Now don't get me wrong now, these guys are talented, (especially the guitar players) but mistake number one is the band listing their cover of a Judas Priest song, "Heart Of A Lion". First off, the song was done by the band Halford, not Priest (also covered by the Paul Gilbert led Racer X in the 80's) and more importantly it is a David Bowie song, not a Priest song. Ya gotta give credit where is it justly due! Crystal Tears version of "Heart Of A Lion" is a pretty good version, in fact, it is more inline with the Racer X version than the Priest version with Crystal Tears arpeggio laden guitar solos all over the place."Heart Of A Lion" is not the only cover song included, you also get Acoustic versions of the Alice Cooper classic, "I'm 18" and Queen's "Tie Your Mother Down". Songs like "Evil vs. Evil" and "Death Haunts Forever" remind me a little bit of Helloween or Hammerfall, but a tad less original and more unmemorable. Decadence Deluxe is a fairly solid record, just not one that will get stuck in your head or one that you would be reaching for to play over and over again. The individual performances are really good, again especially the guitars, but they are almost too over done at times with that, "look at me" type of soloing, as opposed to what works for the songs. But they are talented, nonetheless. Overall Decadence Deluxe is a sonically pleasing record, just not an overly impressive one, just a decent one.

Crystal Tears:
Søren Adamsen -Vocals
Kostas Sotos -Guitars
Máté Nagy - Guitars
Alex Chamalides - Bass
Chrisafis Tantanozis -Drums

Tracklist:

1. Evil Vs. Evil
2. Blindead
3. Heart of a Lion
4. Where Angels Die
5. Death Haunts Forever
6. My Own Hell
7. Bleeding Me
8. Chaos Thy Name
9. Sick of It All
10. Dear Insanity
11. Tears for the Dead
12. I’m 18
13. Tie Your Mother Down

Added: June 6th 2018
Reviewer: Butch Jones
Score:
Related Link: Band Website
Hits: 937
Language: english

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