{"id":75837,"date":"2019-02-12T15:00:16","date_gmt":"2019-02-12T15:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/?p=75837"},"modified":"2023-04-07T14:25:24","modified_gmt":"2023-04-07T13:25:24","slug":"review-crystal-lake-helix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-crystal-lake-helix\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Crystal Lake &#8211; Helix"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-75842\" src=\"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Crystal-Lake-Helix-Artwork-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Crystal-Lake-Helix-Artwork-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Crystal-Lake-Helix-Artwork-100x100.jpg 100w, https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Crystal-Lake-Helix-Artwork-600x600.jpg 600w, https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Crystal-Lake-Helix-Artwork-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Crystal-Lake-Helix-Artwork-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Crystal-Lake-Helix-Artwork-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Crystal-Lake-Helix-Artwork-465x465.jpg 465w, https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Crystal-Lake-Helix-Artwork-500x500.jpg 500w, https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Crystal-Lake-Helix-Artwork.jpg 1500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>Despite forming in 2002, Japanese metalcore band <strong>Crystal Lake<\/strong> have just arrived on western shores, keen to make an impact. With the genre in flux and the big-hitters trying new things, their timing could not be better. Working from the standard metalcore template new album <em>\u2018Helix\u2019<\/em> has the potential to succeed, throwing a whole host of electronics and wild vocal ideas into the mix. Listening to it is like reaching blindly into a party bag, surprising but ultimately, disappointing.<\/p>\n<p>After a brief robotic introduction, \u2018<em>Aeon<\/em>\u2019 kicks things off with the force of a bullet train. Double bass pedal attacks like a machine gun in a brutal ride, until suddenly the song is derailed by electronic glitching that doesn\u2019t feel fully integrated. \u00a0It\u2019s an awkward trick they repeat throughout the album; disguising uninspired metalcore with a smattering of effects.<\/p>\n<p>When they get it right on \u2018<em>Agony<\/em>\u2019 you\u2019re presented with a snarling beast of a song that segues into an electronic outro. At other times, notably \u2018<em>Hail To The Fire<\/em>\u2019, \u00a0it falls flat, with only an interesting vocal tic saving it from being a total write off.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Crystal Lake - Lost In Forever (Official Music Video)\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6BFgs2PloFI?feature=oembed&#038;enablejsapi=1&#038;origin=https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Vocalist Ryo Kinoshita is the album\u2019s saviour. While the band\u2019s only original members, Yudai Miyamoto and Shinya Hori, seem content sticking to their metalcore roots, Kinoshita really pushes himself, providing the both the album\u2019s highlights and its most experimental moments. Ranging from singing to yelling, grunting and even showing off decent rap skills on the nu-metal leaning <em>\u2018+81\u2019.<\/em> \u00a0Yet, even he is hit and miss. The lacklustre mainstream metal balladry of \u2018<em>Devilcry<\/em>\u2019 is followed by a bizarre song made up of strange vibrating phone noises, glitches and synths with layered vocals, sounding like a song Mike Patton would put out. One minute too safe, the other too unrestrained.<\/p>\n<p>While <strong>Crystal Lake<\/strong> are willing to experiment, by refusing to fully commit to a new sound they hold the album back, making it hard to recommend. Track 10 is called \u2018<em>Just Confusing<\/em>\u2019, it wouldn\u2019t have been a bad title for the album.<\/p>\n<p>2.5\/5<\/p>\n<p>\u2018<em>Helix<\/em>\u2019 by <strong>Crystal Lake<\/strong> is released on 15th February on <strong>SharpTone Records<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Crystal Lake<\/strong> links:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/crystallake.jp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Website<\/a> | <a href=\"\/\/www.facebook.com\/crystallake777\">Facebook<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/crystallake777\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitter<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/www.instagram.com\/crystallake777\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Instagram<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Words by Ian Kenworthy (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WhisperingSand\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@WhisperingSand<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u2018Helix\u2019 has the potential to succeed but ultimately, it&#8217;s disappointing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":75842,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[5879,16389,15621,132],"class_list":["post-75837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-album-reviews","tag-album-reviews","tag-crystal-lake","tag-ian-kenworthy","tag-sharptone-records"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - 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