This is the fifth release for Crysknife, which consists of brothers Steve and Tom Campitelli, and features a drum session from Bullet for my Valentine's Jason Bowld.
How would I describe Crysknife in the context of metal? Due to the keyboard instruments and sense of melody beyond power chords and dissonant intervals, it sometimes feels prog adjacent, but doesn't have the weird meters or modes to fully cross into that genre. It's hard to call it thrash - it has heavy, crunchy moments but these aren't the majority. It's never been death because it lacks the blast beats and growls. The lyrics are generally not dark or angry; in fact it struck me this time around how visual the lyrics are.
- Hardpan - This one starts off sounding like a mid-tempo Bad Religion song. Bridge riff synths are nice but more atmospheric than a solo and I could use them higher in the mix. There's a true solo at the end of the song.
- Red Lodge - The piano intro is nice - in point of fact Steve is a classical pianist so I always feel a bit cheated that there isn't more. One of my favorite Crysknife songs opens this way.
- Last Echo - The first time I listened to it the intro was a little too quirky for me, but when the guitars in it kicks ass. I dig the stops after the second refrain.
- Stand as One - I don't think I've heard keys with this style of guitar (or type of riff) before. My favorite part is the bass and piano bridge section. Also this is the refrain I catch myself humming during the day.
- Zen and Murder - Predictably my favorite, because it's the heaviest. The second riff (the main vocal riff) reminds me of Helmet, in fact much of the song does. This is also the one that makes me most want to see the lyrics.
- Worlds End - A down-tempo one with a more open main riff, problematic only because the title sets you up to think you're about to have your face melted
A Note on the Value of "Albums"
This album was a long time in the making - 10 years I think, the Chinese Democracy of Crysknife as it were. A non-metal fan once said that the metal fan's focus on albums seemed to detract from the value or quality of individual songs. Incorrect (you can't have a good album without good songs), but now it's worth asking: what even is an album, or was it, back in the album's golden era? That I'm still worrying about this is far into the era of streaming and accessible home or local recording suggests that I'm old, which is in fact the case; my examples clearly betray me as a Gen X metalhead, raised on the single-less media of cassettes and CDs. Fight me. As I listened to these songs, I realized how arbitrary it could be to call a collection of songs an "album", even in an era when that was more relevant for reasons of industry structure. I am told there might be two more songs coming from Crysknife - associated with this, batch, I guess? (Searching for a way to describe it besides an album.)
Among other things, the inherent value of an album, outside of constraints forced by production and marketing structure, consists in the following:
- Consistency across the album. The guitar tone for example (sometime play the game of hearing one second of a metal song, and guess not only the band but the album.) This creates a coherent overall listening experience. It's not just the instruments and production. Tool's Undertow carries a consistent emotional tone throughout the record that's a big part of its value.
- Lyrical themes - both intentional and otherwise. Part of this is references and callbacks within the album - think of the opening and closing of Maiden's Seventh Son, which in isolation would offer very little of value.
- A snapshot of where the band is at that moment. To me, the oft-savaged St. Anger's principal value is as a historical document of the dynamics in the band. Early 90s metal suddenly had old men everywhere in their imagery, possibly subconsciously presaging one of metal's interregna.
