Oh wow, somebody has opened the closet to the Eighties again and dragged a band straight from that decade into the year 2006! German Pure Steel Records are the "culprits" and Greek CRYSTAL TEARS is the band that has been teleported, because that is the only way one could explain the sound of their third full album "Choirs Of Immortal".

Basically everything screams 80s, the cover, the lyrics, the fact that the songs are short and sweet and could without a problem have fit on a vinyl disc, the riffing, the rhythms, the vocals, the only thing that really is up to date is the production, which is clear and powerful. The previous sentence will now either attract or appall you, it is your choice, I for my part love it! Why? Because it is not just a rehash, but captures the authentic spirit!

The most probably most characteristic element of CRYSTAL TEARS' sound is Natasa's voice, which is unusually rough (yet still melodic) for a girl and has more grit than many of her male colleagues (probably causing some potential fans of the band to cringe), giving the songs character, same goes for the riffing of Dimitris, which at times has this certain raw edge that the early to mid Eighties had put on the guitars of the classic acts, further adding to the pure atmosphere of this album.

The Thessaloniki-based group has a bunch of excellent songs in their back pack, which should cater to anyone still longing for the days of yore, with the pumping bass of "Sworn To Avenge", the super catchy "Rock Survivors", crunchy mid-tempo cracker "Master Of Deception", the epic to me, ehm no, Alexander the Great "Megas Alexandros", the whiplash-inducing smasher "Stealer Of Minds" or the driving "And The Arrows Fall", all of them being completely unimpressed by any new musical findings of the past 20 years.

So if you think that anything sounding like the 80s should have stayed there, stay away from CRYSTAL TEARS (even though I am still very surprised that after the second paragraph you actually are still reading), anybody, who thirsts for the pure steel (the label name really fits here) will find the oasis in the desert of modernisms!

(Online December 13, 2006)