CRYSTAL PHOENIX

Crystal Phoenix from Piemonte was a late-80's project and brainchild of female singer and multi-instrumentalist Myriam Sagenwells Saglimbeni.With Saglimbeni handling guitars, vocals and strings and helped by drummer Roberto Mazza, guitarists Silvio Toma and Patrizio Rametti and bassist Matteo Pezzicoli, Crystal Phoenix appeared in 1989 with a private press self-titled LP, which ended up to be the first official CD release from Genovese label Black Widow in 1993.

The first LP side represents the ''...another life'' chapter of the album, opening with a short IRON MAIDEN-like tune with bombastic but plastic-sounding drums and bass, saved actually by the good lead guitars and followed by the folkish ballad ''474 Anno Domini'', where Saglimbeni offers her highly-accented vocals in an unimpressive soft atmosphere.Flutes, harps, cymbals and dreamy vocal lines finally add to the album some decent atmosphere on ''Somewhere, nowhere battle'' and its pure Medieval tunes.The instrumental ''Lother Siniell'' is sort of Acoustic/Orchestral Folk with sampled strings all around along with choirs and an attempt by Saglimbeni to create a very grandiose soundscape, which fails partly due to its rather thin sound.The flipside (representing the ''...this life'' chapter) contains the two longer cuts of the work, opening with the two-part 7-min. suite ''Heaven to a Flower/Violet Crystal Phoenix'', maybe the best piece in ''Crystal Phoenix'', doomy and folky Progressive Rock with interesting acoustic and electric parts, great organs and Saglimbeni's top performance on operatic vocals.Another 7-min. composition, ''Dark Shadow'' will close the album, starting off with a repetitive groove, surrounded by the most sensitive vocals by the singer and background electric guitars and constantly building on the electric parts to offer some more grandiose vocals and organ parts and eventually closing with synth and guitar solos in a Neo-Classical way.

At only 32 minutes, ''Crystal phoenix'' is not likely to satisfy many listeners.The ideas are good but the exceution is a bit amateur and low-budget.For fans of modern, artistic Folk Rock though this might be a decent listening...2.5 stars.