Crystal Ball
LifeRider

The ball of crystal from the heights of The Alps is back with a new work, LifeRider it is called and is the eighth album of this band. It follows two years after the quintet’s latest release Dawnbreaker, an album that was well received in the scrolls of this Hallowed webzine. After the latest album they went on a tour spanning 40 dates with bands like The Poodles and Krokus and now when done with that they teamed up with Stefan Kaufmann known for his works with bands like Accept and U.D.O. to produce this LifeRider album. It doesn’t have the most interesting cover but what about that which we find within the cover art?

Musically it is classic hardrock much reminiscent of eighties and very much of their countrymen like Gotthard and Krokus but also Accept and at times I come to think that I have heard many of these songs before on an album released in 1980 where the producer was playing the drums. Not exactly the most unique of albums I have heard and compared with what came before it, not as well produced and dynamic as their previous album. And very long, well over an hour of playing time is what it offers – seventy minutes to be exact. And due to the constraints of the genre I would say that it is impossible to keep interesting for such a long time.

So, one can demand a bit more on the novelty front – but it is not only that as I also think that the songs are not as dynamic and interesting as they were on the very good album that preceded this one. It feels as though they were a bit lazy when creating this one, just writing simple songs like they have before and just selecting all of them for the album, not having a real selective process is the only reason I can figure for a band that I have heard such strong music from to make such a dull album. I think they lack the dynamics of the previous album and that it goes on forever isn’t helping matters, I think they should have selected better and worked more on the songs they selected – this may not be an outrage but it certainly isn’t a good way to follow up a good album.

I think the album’s start is the best, the first track Mayday! is probably the most memorable of the album. It then falls away more and more the further the album continues and in the end it becomes quite unbearable. Sure, fans of the genre and the band, as well as the similar bands, might still find this okay as it is probably no worse than much other stuff that is churned out within the same style – I suggest however, that you take it in two turns as it is too long to listen through as a whole. If you are curious about this band I suggest you look at the Dawnbreaker album that preceded this one because it is a lot better than this one.

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