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CRYSTAL MAZE

Neo-Prog • Germany


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Crystal Maze picture
Crystal Maze biography
CRYSTAL MAZE - melodic rock music of the best !! German mid-80's band with a sound comparable to GROBSCHNITT's better moments, a harder progressive rock with lots of riveting lead guitar, moody stretches, abundant synth and mellotron, with powerful melodics and dramatic intensity. Bass / vocals, keyboards, drums and an outstanding qualified guitar player merge melodic rock, rock ballades and classical elements to an individual concept of melodic rock. CRYSTAL MAZE's music is in the vein of Eighties neo Progressive movement.

On "Lost In The Crystal Maze", this trio (guitar-bass, keyboards and drums) offers a mix of FM-style soft progressive rock, with insistent, refined and high-pitched vocal parts which remind of QUEEN. The 4th album of CRYSTAL MAZE is one of the CD's which should complete the collection of every melodic rock fan. Close to MARILLION, TWELFTH NIGHT or PALLAS.

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CRYSTAL MAZE discography


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CRYSTAL MAZE top albums (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)

2.45 | 10 ratings
Waiting In The Spider's Web
1987
2.09 | 8 ratings
Forever
1994
3.88 | 8 ratings
Lost In Crystal Maze
1996
3.25 | 8 ratings
Searching 4 Harmony
2001

CRYSTAL MAZE Live Albums (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)

4.00 | 1 ratings
The last dance live
2001

CRYSTAL MAZE Videos (DVD, Blu-ray, VHS etc)

CRYSTAL MAZE Boxset & Compilations (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)

CRYSTAL MAZE Official Singles, EPs, Fan Club & Promo (CD, EP/LP, MC, Digital Media Download)

0.00 | 0 ratings
First Move (maxi single)
1987

CRYSTAL MAZE Reviews


Showing last 10 reviews only
 Forever by CRYSTAL MAZE album cover Studio Album, 1994
2.09 | 8 ratings

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Forever
Crystal Maze Neo-Prog

Review by apps79
Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator

2 stars It would take Crystal Maze some seven years to return with a second album.It appears that guitarist Christoph Arndt quit from his duties at some point and the band continued as a trio, recruiting Sorin Badin to help them out in the guitar parts of their sophomore effort ''Forever''.Despite their long abscence from discography Music Is Intelligence decided to release the band's follow-up to the nice debut ''Waiting in the spider's web''.

At a time when Prog Rock was taking its baby steps towards a second huge wave in the 90's, Crystal Maze seem to take the opposite path and their music became extremely radio-friendly.Basically ''Forever'' is an AOR/Pomp Rock effort along the lines of SAGA and ASIA with minor progressive influences.Despite the strong use of symphonic keyboards and extended use of piano lines, the focus now is on compact, standard song-based tracks with emphasis on melodies and emotional passages, giving priority also on striking choruses, sensitive solos and tapping, rockin' grooves with the addition of a couple of ballads for good measure.The keyboard work is pompous and often grandiose, supported by some edgy guitar playing, but most of the lyrics are cheesy, while the unimaginative arrangements and the flat production are far from the progressive standards established by the band a few years back.Otherwise the performances are enjoyable if you like this kind of style with memorable tunes and vocal sections.But a honorable mention must be made to the pair of great, instrumental tracks included in the album, which come close to the style of ODYSSICE or FLAMBOROUGH HEAD, featuring some dramatic melodies and a discreet CAMEL influence in a much more Prog-oriented enviroment.

Proggy AOR/Pomp Rock, which will propably dissapoint anyone having listened the band's first album.Still a pleasant listening for fans of catchy music with plenty of melodic parts and bombastic keyboards...2.5 stars.

 Waiting In The Spider's Web by CRYSTAL MAZE album cover Studio Album, 1987
2.45 | 10 ratings

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Waiting In The Spider's Web
Crystal Maze Neo-Prog

Review by apps79
Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator

3 stars A complete neo prog obscurity,Crystal Maze was an idea of Austrian bassist/singer Ferry Bullinger (ex-Indigo),who found the band in the 80's in Stuttgart.The original band included also guitarist Christoph Arndt,drummer Thomas Schmid and keyboardist Peter Schaub,who left in 1987 to be replaced by Heinz Wallenfels.Their first album ''Waiting in the Spider's Web'' contains material written between 1985 and 1987.

A typical Neo Prog release of the 80's,the album contains non-risky melodic Progressive Rock with lots of catchy moments and some tracks closer to Hard Rock and AOR to satisfy an even wider audience.In the vein of other obscure German Neo Prog acts like ZIFF,BEL AIR or ZENOBIA,most of the tracks present heavy MARILLION and TWELFTH NIGHT hints with sensational guitar solos,dreamy keyboard work with a few symphonic twists,while the whole album is based on its emotional atmosphere and the trully ethereal melodies.Vocals are a little accented,but they do work well despite the obvious lack of vocal range.Actually the first half of the album is really great and desreves to be listed as Progressive Rock with some top notch melodies here and there,the second being unfortunately more flat with more straight-rock moments of little interest,like the long but boring instrumental ''Prejudice''.

An unknown and rare German work even around the time of its release in progressive music darkest hours,''Waiting in the Spider's Web'' will please any fan of decent and accesible Neo Progressive music and will hold your interest for some time due to its highly melodic content.Recommended.

 Waiting In The Spider's Web by CRYSTAL MAZE album cover Studio Album, 1987
2.45 | 10 ratings

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Waiting In The Spider's Web
Crystal Maze Neo-Prog

Review by renaudbb

1 stars Wow ! These days I'm listening to tons of new prog stuff and I can say that quality is highly different from one record to another. But... this one... is probably the most terrible effort I heard since a while. The music is regular neo-prog stuff, slow one, without nothing new or catchy, honourable guitar playing. But.. the singer is just terrible. He's just not able to sing in english at all, I think that the only ones who have an even worse accent are arab and french people (I'm french !). Moreover the singing is all but mastered and often funny. Add the incredibly ridiculous Marillion-like album title, and you get the typical neo-prog amateur production that nobody wants to listen at more than 5 minutes.
 Forever by CRYSTAL MAZE album cover Studio Album, 1994
2.09 | 8 ratings

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Forever
Crystal Maze Neo-Prog

Review by progrules
Prog Reviewer

2 stars In my search for all sorts of unknown neobands you can't expect to meet just class acts. And in fact here we have one that really isn't my cup of tea. I'm only the second person on PA who checks this album out and that wasn't already a very promising sign.

The funny thing with this album is that the few songs that are (short) instrumentals aren't that bad at all, they are even quite good. But when the very mediocre (if not poor) vocals come into the picture the compositions and sound of these songs don't come out at all. These songs are flat, poorly executed and also the production isn't really what it should be.

Besides the few nice short instrumentals there's one song that really stands out, both in compositional as in executional way and that song is called Is there a Place ? This is actually a very good song with good vocals this time and a very good instrumental part. But all the other tracks are way below par I have to say.

What they sound like ? Imagine the least Saga album and then even less. That is more or less the style we are talking about on this album. Or in other words, this one is just about too good for the lowest rating but two stars is the best I can do.

Thanks to ProgLucky for the artist addition.

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