CRIMSON II

In all my times of listening to heavy-as-**** music, there have been only two times where I really really opened my eyes and said, "Holy crap, that is a ****ing MONSTER riff!" Two times. 1) Iron Maiden's Powerslave album, and 2) This album. Not surprisingly, many riffs on this album seem pretty Maiden-ish at times, and with coupled with the 80s keyboards and synth, there's definitely that feeling. I'd go so far to see that this is essentially Rush meets Maiden meets death metal. And that is one damn good thing. About the riffs...these aren't crappy "Let's play loud and fast with a couple of brutal-sounding riffs that involve three notes and repeat" riffs. These are full, rich, well-developed riffs. Every riff sounds well crafted and designed and fits perfectly. You have to hear it to believe it.

The album is one 43 minute epic divided into 44 different parts on the latest re-issue (this site has an incorrect time listing, it is 43 minutes). I can't possibly talk about all 44 parts, although, I could if I had more time and less of a life as each and every part rocks. The intro is a short violin intro with the first screaming riff. From then on... it's as I said, riff heaven. There are occasional clean parts with clean guitars and vocals, all executed perfectly. Swano's voice is perfect for this kind of album, as the growls are very coarse and rough, yet generally not as vile as some other death metal vocals. Kinda like Akerfeldt. Speaking of which, there are parts which I could SWEAR it actually was Akerfeldt singing and not Swano...then I remind myself this is Crimson II not Crimson. His clean vocals are beautiful, and his voice is very rich and wonderful on the ears.

Swano is awesome. His vocals rock as I said, and he plays EVERY other instrument on this album. Talk about amazing. So about the job he does? As I said, riffs are perfect and well-created. The keyboards and synth are near perfect and complement the riffage and music and tone perfectly. The only possible flaw is the drumming that Swano does, which is very good, but a little simplistic at times and other times kinda uninspired.

Every part of this song rocks. I never get bored with the amazing riffage, awesome vocals, beautiful clean sections, delightful cheesy 80s vibe that somehow works. I can't hold it up to the same pedestal, however, that I do Lizard, Thick as a Brick, Fragile, The Perfect Element, Terria, all of those. It's not original or QUITE creative enough. It's just an amazingly awesome display of great songwriting and riffage. Much like PoS's Remedy Lane, I give this one a 4.4999999999. So close to a

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